


Theirs

by PinnacleChoi



Series: Shadows AU [2]
Category: Diabolik Lovers
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, Amnesia, Birth, Blasphemy, Blood Drinking, Blood Kink, Bondage, Boys in Chains, Captivity, Character Study, Childish Bratty Fucking Vampires, Choking, Consensual Sex, Dark Humor, Death, Death Threats, Depression, Discussion of Abortion, Don't fucking plagiarize this or I'll make you eat my shit, Dreams and Nightmares, Drugging, Dubcon Cuddling, Dubcon Kissing, Dubious Consent, Dubious Morality, Dysfunctional Family, Exhibitionism, F/M, Family, Family Issues, Fingering, Fire, Folklore, Forgiveness, Friendship, Gen, Girls in Chains, Growing Up, Haunted Houses, Human Experimentation, Humor, Jealousy, Kink Shaming, Knifeplay, Licking, Lima Syndrome, Manipulative Relationship, Masochism, Masochist Reji, Master/Slave, Matricide, Mildly Dubious Consent, Mommy Issues, Moving On, Murder, Mutual Masturbation, Non-Consensual Blood Drinking, Non-Consensual Kissing, Non-Consensual Touching, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Paranoia, Past Character Death, Past Lives, Possessive Behavior, Possessive Sex, Power Dynamics, Pregnancy, Psychological, Public Sex, Pyrophobia, Redemption, Religious Conflict, Religious Guilt, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Sadism, Sadistic OC, Sadistic Shuu, Seduction, Sexual Coercion, Sexual Harassment, Sexual Tension, Sharing Body Heat, Slow Burn, Stockholm Syndrome, Super Sadistic Reiji, Surprise Pairing, Switching, Threats, Torture, Unplanned Pregnancy, Unrequited Love, Updated monthly due to other projects, Violence, Whipping, long chapters, long fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:07:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 74,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21942634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinnacleChoi/pseuds/PinnacleChoi
Summary: They stopped belonging to themselves once they set foot into the Sakamaki mansion, but as time went by, they weren't so sure they minded.Will start out slow and will progressively get darker. You have been warned. This is a "what if" AU of In The Shadows.(NOTE: you don't need to know the games or anime in order to be able to read the story. It's written in a way in which you'll be introduced into the DL universe)
Relationships: Komori Yui/Sakamaki Reiji, Sakamaki Shuu/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Shadows AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/743157
Comments: 125
Kudos: 139





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KRISTANIA](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KRISTANIA/gifts).



> I do not own Rejet's Diabolik Lovers nor its characters. I only own my OCs and the plot of this story.
> 
> Please don't plagiarize or paraphrase gdi.
> 
> **PS: the first chapters will seem similar to the ones for In The Shadows except for a change here and there, different povs etc because I wanted Yui and Hannah to still be brides in this AU and wanted to further flesh out some scenes more that I rushed in that other fic.**
> 
> **This is just a "what if" story within that fucked up universe with different pairings in which Hannah isn't a relative of either Reiji and Shuu. So yeah, her ancestry and familial connection with them in that story is non-existent in this one. (so taboo police can calm down considering that this is my OC and I can change her background whenever I wish in any AU I write her in although her background isn't that much different here... She's just not related to any Sakamakis).**
> 
> **If you're a former reader of ITS and you feel like skipping until Chapter 3 its understandable but if you're a new reader of this fic alone then continue onward. ;)**

**Present Time**

_Yui stared in silent amazement at the small wiggling infant that howled in outrage in the darkened room only lit by a couple of candles and some sliver of moonlight entering through the parted curtains._

_Reiji's hands looked so large with the small shrieking blood covered child._

_The image itself was surreal to Yui. Them in a darkened room in which everything seemed to be perfectly still for moments as the outside world was full of noise that was slowly heading their way._

_They had no electricity. The electricity had been cut off by the hunters invading the mansion. She could hear male shouts followed by gunshots on the first floor. It was only a matter of time before the hunters found them and finished them all, including the baby that had been just born in the chaos._

_She wanted to cover her ears to stop the sounds of violence accompanied by the wailing of the innocent child in Reiji's bloodied hands. Her ears had become more sensitive than a human's ever since she had..._

_She might have unknowingly shielded her ears from the unbearable noise because she felt a coldness drifting over her scrunched up features._

_It was a huff of cold air._

_An angered vampire's breath as he hissed at her loudly just inches from her face._

_Opening her eyes she hadn't noticed she had closed, she saw Reiji giving her one of his frigid frustrated glares. The one he usually gave her when she made a mistake or brought a low grade on a test. The look that said she was in danger and that his patience was hanging by a thin thread. He must have rushed to her seeing that she wasn't listening to him._

_"Take her!" he barked at her and Yui blinked at seeing him push a bundle that had the still bloodied child._

_A child that had just come out of Hannah who was shivering on the cold bedroom floor. Her friend looked paler than usual, her lips gasping after what seemed like hours of crying out in pain. Hannah's trembling white legs were spread and Yui felt her stomach clench with worry at seeing how much blood coated her inner thighs and pooled on the floor beneath her._

_She quickly shook her head knowing she shouldn't waste time and quickly took the baby, Hannah's daughter, and held her close to her chest._

_The baby no longer wailed and she could feel her new eyes looking at Yui which surprised her since she expected all newborns to have their eyes closed. She wasn't that experienced with infants and she could count in one hand how many times she's actually held one but she was careful in holding this one._

She feels so light. So fragile.

_Vaguely hearing Reiji murmuring lowly to Shuu who had been the one helping restrain a pained Hannah during the birth of the child, Yui finally looked down and studied the bundle in her arms._

_Despite the blood, the child was beautiful. It wasn't true that all children looked the same at birth. This one looked like a grotesquely bloodied porcelain doll, with a small chubby face with small lips that seemed to pout and intelligent clear eyes that stared up at her curiously._

_Eyes that looked too old for a newborn's face. Too intelligent. She wondered idly if all vampire infants were like this. With clear smooth skin that was already unnaturally pale, perfect little doll-like features and eyes that were like pretty colored glass that seemed to drink in everything around them intensely._

_The baby's hair was the color crimson of the blood from her mother, but Yui could tell it wasn't black like Hannah's hair. It was definitely much lighter and seemed to curl and then there were those bright blue eyes that wouldn't look away from her own face._

_"Yui!" hearing Reiji hiss again, she flinched when looking his way to see that Hannah was already lifted up in Shuu's arms. Her friend looked disheveled and battling sleep, but still alright. The bottom of her nightgown was dark with her blood but it appeared like she was trying to remain conscious. Her friend's pale gray eyes looked unfocused yet searching until they met hers. Yui sagged in relief while still holding securely to the newborn._

_"It's time to leave! Hold on to her no matter what!" she didn't need to be told twice. She knew what was at stake. Hunters had broken into the mansion. The other brothers were fighting them off to buy them some time until Hannah had been able to leave._

_She didn't know how things had come to this. In the past year of living with the Sakamakis, there were a lot of things she didn't understand. Fate had become twisted for her and Hannah along the way and while she knew too much, she still was in the dark about many things._

_She never would have expected to be in that situation. Neither one of them would have. A little more than a year ago she had expected a normal life of going to school while Hannah had her own plans for after graduation. Plans that didn't involve becoming a vampire's regular meal and a mother about to be exterminated with her newborn child just because they weren't human._

_Yui was going to die there too. She was no longer who she used to be. She had been sentenced in a way to a new existence. An existence in which they were hunted for no longer being in God's light. For no longer being human._

Who told those hunters where we were? And why did they attack us on this particular night? I could swear they knew that Hannah was close to giving birth. Someone must have told them.

_Cradling the now quiet infant that had fallen sleep after satisfying her childlike curiosity by memorizing Yui's face, she was startled when Reiji roughly grabbed her by the shoulder to push her behind him. She could hear Shuu saying something lowly about them leaving through the window since he didn't sense any of Them outside._

_She didn't have to look at that particular Sakamaki to know that his usual mask of apathy was gone. His voice was calm but his expression certainly wasn't. She had seen his forced calm during the whole time Hannah had been in labor. Calm voiced but with slightly panicked eyes. She wondered if he had done that to keep Hannah calm herself. Her friend had been panicked when her water broke. Yui wasn't used to seeing her friend so visibly in pain and making those sounds of agony. She could not even remember seeing Hannah shed tears before in all the years of knowing her-_

_That's when she heard Them. The loud bangs and the sounds of multiple voices outside the barricaded door of the bedroom turned birthing room they were in. She could almost smell the anger from the hunters. It felt almost personal. Yui could say with absolute certainty that it was as violent an energy as the darkness the vampires they had grown accustomed to seemed to emanate at all times._

_They had run out of time. This was surely the end of their tale... Or it could be a new beginning. Yui didn't know and was afraid of daring to hope again. She had given up on hope when she felt God had abandoned them._

_Holding the innocently sleeping infant closely to her chest, she gave a silent apology to the child that was blissfully unaware of the fate awaiting her. Even with all the noise, the little girl slept with the innocence of someone that felt safe exactly where they were. Yui could feel her eyes stinging and was startled at seeing a clear droplet of her tears slide down the child's silken cheek._

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry we can't protect you...!

_The sound of splintering wood of the door holding the hunters away from them made her shudder as she continued with her silent apologies._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT NOTICE: In The Shadows is for registered users only because I found way too many minors reading it and that one happens to be my strongest fic among others. If you want to read that dark work, you'll have to be a registered user. I don't know for how long I'll keep it for users only. 
> 
> Anyways on to the actual A/N: Yes, a new fic to get me slowly into DL again. As I said in the tags... In this fic Hannah ISN'T related to Shuu and Reiji like in In The Shadows. She isn't related to them at all although, who's she's related to will cause issues in the storyline once it's figured out. She has a new background in this one although she'll still consider herself an orphan because as far as she knows she is one. 
> 
> Yui is still the carrier of Cordelia's heart in this so expect Cordelia to make an appearance (and it'll be major and will play an important role. Yui's role will be important as well, tho she was also important in ITS so if you're a fan of her, then you're in for a treat but if you dislike her, well fucking tough shit... Although most of my readers from ITS liked how I wrote Yui even if they originally didn't like Yui). 
> 
> This story will be much lighter than In The Shadows but I can't tell exactly how light it'll be. Sometimes writing gets away on me and I might get pretty freaking dark without meaning too. The same thing happened to me when writing ITS. I hadn't realized how dark that shit was until later, lol. 
> 
> Expect lot's of vampires and family issues to show up (as you can see in this prologue I'll really work on Shuu's and Reiji's relationship) . I might even write the Mukamis in cause I think they'll play an important role among other vamps (tons of Yuma) , just saying. This story is definitely more plot heavy. 
> 
> Also, I might return to writing for ITS again. I just need to warm up little by little with DL again and something a little less intense as Laito and Ayato might do the trick.
> 
> PS: it'll be slow burn. Yes, slow and torturous. But I'm a huge massive fucking pervert that I might pepper the fic with my sex shit cause I can't control myself but full on banging might take awhile ... 
> 
> Much love for my DL friends who've stuck with my ass during this long absence and my perv sister who reads everything I write. I'll be bugging y'all to tell me what kinda things you'd like to see happening and I'm twisted enough to write it. 
> 
> You can find me @pinnaclechoi in twitter or @bitch-pinnacle on tumblr. I'm selective about who I follow back but we can just hang out fangirling/boy... Which I do A LOT cause I'm always playing some game. (mostly perverted shit too lmaooo) 
> 
> And also, I knocked Hannah up again cause I like adding all kinds of freaking moral conflicts although this pregnancy will go very differently than the one from ITS. You'll see why. (this A/N is a fucking mess, SEND HALP I'M DISORGANIZED ASF) 
> 
> Also happy Christmas Eve. Even to the bitches who hate me! :) I'm tired of grudges and bullshit.


	2. The Mansion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get the starter chapters over with quickly cause they're so boring....
> 
> Beginning is similar to ITS for my own reasons and with some changes here and there. The Shadows AU is pretty much a darker version of DL so I'd like to keep some things similar yet different depending the guys chosen. 
> 
> Unfortunately I might have pissed Ayato tf off in this with my changes this time around. You can skip this chapter if you so wish if you're a former reader of ITS. 
> 
> Warning: Hairpulling and profanity.

**The Beginning**  
  
"Why are you asking me to do this...?" Yui couldn't help sighing at the suspicion in her friend's voice.  
  
"Father said I should bring you along with me there so I won't be alone. It'll be a different school but we'll be just a town over-!"  
  
"You expect _me_ , of all people, to go to some other town with some relatives you haven't met...?" there it was again. The edgy somewhat flat tone with dull eyed stare aimed at her.  
  
Hannah had the uncanny ability of being able to hold a conversation while doing something else at the same time. Currently they were in their school's library doing homework and not once had Hannah stopped filling out her worksheet.  
  
"Father said that everything will be taken care of...," now Yui was starting to have her own doubts. Her friend was naturally suspicious of everything and everyone she didn't know. Sometimes her suspicious nature rubbed off on her just like it was now.  
  
"Hmmm...," that was Hannah's only response as her attention returned back to her work on table in front of them. Yui knew that this was her way of saying a sharp "fuck no" in a very Hannah fashion. Just a "hmmm" and ignoring whoever she was talking to.  
  
It was exasperating to say the least but they've known each other since they were five and even though they were both polar opposites in looks and personality, they understood each other. They were like an odd couple in a way. Even other students in school mentioned how oddly matched they were and yet how they seemed to get along despite their differences.  
  
"The church is in that town... You know? The one father works at? It's not even that far from the address we're going to."  
  
"Ah..."  
  
Yui couldn't help rolling her eyes. That was all she was going to get out of her.  
  
"I'm scared," at that admission Hannah finally looked at her from the corner of her eyes. It was a searching curious stare.  
  
"Now you finally admit to it."  
  
"No! It's not a _scared_ kind of scared, but more like nervous. As you said I don't know these relatives. It's always been me and father. To hear I have had relatives living this close to our town and I've never even met them makes me pretty nervous..."  
  
She could see her friend's shoulders slump as if in defeat. The silence went on between them for a couple of moments but she knew Hannah was about to say something on the matter. Sometimes it was best to wait for her while she carefully searched for words to say.   
  
"Fine, I'll go," Yui blinked, unsure if she heard right.  
  
"What?!"  
  
" _Shhh_! You'll get us kicked out of here again like last time! I said I'll go," flashing pale gray eyes glanced warningly her way as Yui blushed remembering what happened last time in the library. She had gotten a text message about winning some concert tickets and she had squealed loudly forgetting where they were. Hannah had been most displeased about the librarian shooing them out like they were pests and banning them for a month from setting foot back in the place.  
  
_Okay... Now I finally got her to agree to go. I hope everything will turn out alright. I don't think I could forgive myself if something bad happened while we were there..._  
  
As if reading her thoughts, Hannah muttered under her breath while having her long inky black hair covering most of her face as she neatly wrote on her worksheet, "I hope your relatives ain't a bunch of fucking weirdos."  
  
*****  
  
"Couldn't you have worn something a little... More presentable...?" Yui asked the girl beside her for what seemed like the third time since they've gotten inside the taxi taking them to their new home. A week had passed since their conversation in the library and during that week long wait, Yui had been nitpicky which was something Hannah was already used to coming from her. 

_Too_ used to judging by Hannah's dry responses to everything. 

"What's wrong with my outfit? I always dress like this," Hannah eyed her as if _she_ was the one that was strange for questioning her fashion choices. As if anyone could call anything Hannah wore "fashionable".  
  
Her friend had a style that was called "frumpy". With a oversized gray sweater, faded jeans and beat up sneakers, Hannah clearly didn't put an effort at all in her appearance and she carelessly showed it. The only times the other girl looked feminine was when she was in her school uniform with her straight hip length black hair finally loose off her usual messy bun. Otherwise, Hannah just wore whatever was "warm" looking and by warm looking, she meant clothes twice her size.  
  
"Besides that I'm cold and this place is up in the mountains. _You_ should have thought out your own outfit better," Hannah's comeback was her way of getting the attention off herself.  
  
"What's wrong with my clothes?! It's the latest fashion for girls-"  
  
"You're showing too much skin," clicking her tongue at her as if she were a naughty child, Hannah gave her a chastising look.  
  
"It's not even that cold outside."  
  
"To me it is so _I_ chose wisely."  
  
_She's the most stubborn person I know but she's the closest thing I have to a sister._  
  
"I wanted to look nice," Yui defended slowly, uncertainly. Now Hannah had gotten her paranoid about her clothes. She honestly saw nothing wrong with her shorts, boots and pink top. She had even cut her pale blond hair to just above her shoulders and had begged her friend to bead some of the strands.  
  
"Just don't do any high kicks in those shorts," the dry amusement in Hannah's tone had Yui almost huff out a laugh. A laugh she suppressed at seeing the eerie mansion peeking through the trees they were passing.  
  
"I wasn't planning to...," her voice trailed off as the car finally came to a slow stop at the high gates.  
  
_Something feels wrong...,_ the taxi slowly came to a stop in front of gates.   
  
"Is this the right place?" Hannah's question made her look away from the ominous black gates.  
  
"It is the address from the paper you girls gave to me. This is as far as I'll go," their driver said in an almost cold tone. Yui was getting the feeling he wanted them out of his cab as soon as possible so he could quickly get away. The feeling increased when she heard a loud click that told them that he had opened the compartment in the back so they could take their luggage out themselves.  
  
"Whatever...," if the driver's tone was cold, Hannah's tone was glacial. Yui could even see the driver pale at her suddenly icy voice judging from the reflection of the man she saw on the rear view mirror.  
  
"You've got your cellphone. If we're fucked in the middle of nowhere, we'll just call another taxi," the cold tone didn't leave and Yui wasn't even glanced at when Hannah spoke those words. No, her frosty stare was focused on the now very visibly nervous driver.  
  
Hannah could easily be intimidating without trying to and this was such an occasion.  
  
Getting out of the car after her friend did, Yui nearly groaned out loud at feeling her blood finally rush back to her legs. Their new home was a town over but the mansion itself was deep into the mountains. It had felt like an eternity had passed before they had finally arrived. Sitting for such a long time during the winding roads heading up into the mountain had numbed her legs.   
  
She hadn't even known there were houses up there. Well, not houses per say, but just one single mansion that at first glance looked abandoned.  
  
Having her luggage pulled out of trunk by Hannah, Yui studied the closed gates. They were old and rusted so darkly until they were black rather than a rusty red. The mansion beyond the gates was in no better shape. It was European in style, which surprised Yui. In Japan, it wasn't exactly common to see such old fashioned dilapidated mansions. It was like she was looking at another time or at another country altogether. Even from a distance she took notice of how tall the windows of the large building were and just how dark they looked. Like there was darkness waiting inside. Just the silence and stillness of the place felt like some unspoken warning.  
  
The place was entirely unwelcoming. _It_ didn't want them to be there.  
  
_This looks like..._  
  
"This looks like a damn haunted mansion. I think your dad gave us the wrong address," suddenly hearing Hannah's dull matter of fact tone, she flinched, looking away from the place just as she the taxi drove away quickly. The driver was obviously happy to be away from them and the mansion and she unfortunately could see why.  
  
"Fucking asshole...," with that annoyed mutter, Hannah went to her side and handed her the handle of her own wheeled luggage.  
  
Yui felt like taking her phone out now because she was now certain they were at the wrong place but seeing Hannah arch a brow at her as if waiting on her, she gave up on the idea.  
  
"Better late than never, I guess," pushing the gates open just wide enough to let themselves in, Yui noted that despite the obvious age of the metal, it opened smoothly.  
  
The only sounds now were of their footsteps on the concrete and the wheels of their luggage as they headed towards the entrance of the looming mansion. She couldn't even hear birds chirping which would have been expected considering that the mansion was surrounded by heavy dark forests.  
  
"The house looks old but the gardens are tended to," Hannah said out loud and she was right. There were roses of every color neatly trimmed tightly to the edges of the large building. Even the concrete they were walking on was bleached white and swept clean of any leaves that could have marred it's pristine appearance.  
  
_So maybe we're at the right place. People clearly live here._  
  
After that train of thought an icy cold droplet landed on the top of her head. Confused she looked up at the once perfectly blue sky and was shocked to see how it had blackened. She could literally see how the dark heavy clouds rolled together above them as if strangely greeting them.  
  
_There wasn't any weather forecast for rain-_

 _"_ Let's go!" just as her friend shouted that it began to pour. It had started as mere little drops but now it was a heavy downpour that drenched her clothes tightly to her body as she ran behind Hannah that had reached the tall doors that thankfully had some roofing to cover them.

 _Though I'm pretty soaked as it is!_  
  
And she wasn't the only one. Hannah huffed in annoyance with her messy bun limply lying at the base of her neck. Long black hairs had escaped and were stuck to the sides her pale oval face.  
  
Feeling cold from being covered in the unexpected rain, she felt she had no choice but to do the honors. Whoever lived there were her relatives and she couldn't very well leave it to Hannah to do the introductions.  
  
Pulling the heavy brass knocker on one of the tall wooden doors, the sound of it echoed so loudly that she was certain even a place as big as this mansion had all its inhabitants hear it.  
  
"Yeah. I don't like that...," were Hannah's only words when the door loudly creaked open by itself after the single loud knock. All she could see was darkness inside beyond the slightly opened door.  
  
_I don't like it either..._  
  
Taking a deep breath, Yui was proud of hiding her nervousness when she finally pushed the door open. If she thought the inside would be warmer, she was dead wrong. The inside felt even colder and being wet from the rain didn't help matters.  
  
_Just perfect... Some first impression we'll make..._  
  
Stepping inside first her eyebrows rose slightly. They entered a great hall with a grand staircase.  
  
_It's too quiet... Is anyone actually inside here?_  
  
The mansion looked old outside and the inside was no better but it still appeared to be tended to. The red carpet they stepped on was clean and the handrails of the grand staircase were glossy as if recently polished.  
  
"Yui, over there!" as if sensing they were disturbing the eerily quiet place, Hannah loudly whispered to her while pointing to a smaller room connected to the great hall and that's when she saw someone laying on a couch there.  
  
_Should I go over there...?_  
  
Seeing no one else to greet them, she headed tentatively in that direction only to blink in confusion at seeing a boy about her age napping on the couch there.   
  
_Is this one of my relatives...?_  
  
He had messy reddish hair and looked so unnaturally pale. Like he was carved out of pure white marble. She couldn't even see blemishes on his skin that one of would expect on a teen boy.  
  
And he was too still. She couldn't even see his chest rise and fall with his breathing even though he looked like he was sleeping.  
  
The more she looked at him the more she felt something was off about him.  
  
"Um, excuse me...?" nothing. He didn't show any signs of stirring at the sound of her voice. All she could hear was the rain outside and the silence of _no breathing_ from him.  
  
Feeling Hannah's hand on her shoulder, she looked to her to see her friend shaking her head with a warning look. Hannah must have noticed it too.  
  
Looking away from Hannah, Yui tried again, "My father told me...," her voice faded at him still being unmoving.  
  
Swallowing dryly she did something that she would beat herself over for doing later even when Hannah tried to gently pull her back. She reached out for one of his hand resting on his stomach. It was meant to be just a mere brush of her fingertips over the back of his too pale hand.  
  
Ice cold. His hand was as cold as an ice cube. Snatching her hand away with a gasp, she gave an alarmed look to her friend.  
  
"Maybe we should call the police-! "  
  
Her words were cut off when a forceful yank grabbed her arm to pull her down on the couch. She didn't have enough time to react at all. One moment she was speaking and the next the world spun as she felt her back hit a cushioned surface with jarring force. A coldness covered her. The coldness of a male body that was easily pinning her.  
  
Bright green cat-like eyes looked down at her feverishly for a brief moment before the once believed to be dead boy's face contorted in pain and he shouted furiously.  
  
His cold weight on her body lessened, further confusing her until she heard something in his incoherent shouts.  
  
"-SOMEONE GET THIS DEMON SHE-BITCH OFF ME!" his pale hands frantically reached for the top of his head and Yui saw Hannah's hand pulling at his already messy reddish locks. Hannah was almost on top of the boy's back and obviously using all her strength in trying to pull him off her.  
  
_His teeth_...!, In his angered yelling she kept seeing a flash of something sharp and white within his mouth.  
  
"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"  
  
"GET THE FUCK OFF HER TO DO IT THEN!"  
  
His weight suddenly got off her and she quickly got away from him and off the couch only to see Hannah struggling against the cold boy that they had thought had been...  
  
"What's the meaning of all this noise...?" an unaffected male voice interrupted the chaos and everything, including the string of vicious curses Hannah had been angrily throwing at the boy that had grabbed her by her own hair, stilled. Her friend was red faced and her wet black hair was loose and tangled in one of the pale boy's hands.   
  
Staring worriedly and wondering if she should force the boy to let go of Hannah's hair, she was soon relieved to see him slowly pull his fingers away on his own, finally releasing her friend that rapidly put a safe distance between them.  
  
Seeing that things had calmed, even if only briefly, Yui hurried to the man that had entered. He seemed like the only sane one of the two boys they had encountered so far since getting there.  
  
"I'm so sorry! It's just that my father told me that-"  
  
"First things first... _Who_ are you and what are you doing inside our house?" taken aback by how emotionless the man's deep voice was, Yui stared up at him and parted her lips to quickly explain.  
  
"That's exactly what Ore-sama is wondering! I was just minding my own business when these two showed up talking about calling the police and when I grabbed the little flat chested blonde, this _demon_ attacked me!"  
  
Heat rose to her cheeks at how the still enraged redhead referred to her.  
  
Her whole body stiffened with embarrassment as she shot back, "Excuse me?! You just grabbed me all the sudden and pinned me down-!"  
  
"It's my house!"  
  
Not knowing how to respond back to that because he was right, Yui pressed her lips into a thin line. She could feel anger flushing her cheeks. In fact her whole face and neck felt hot. The redhead must have realized she was no longer going to argue because his glare turned into a mean smirk that showed the hint of a sharp canine tooth. His smirk was the kind one would expect to see on the face of a school yard bully that had won in a battle of kid insults.  
  
Her eyes looked back at the tall man that had interrupted what had looked like was a full on fight between Hannah and the smirking redhead with the fierce green eyes.  
  
He wasn't looking at any of them, his eyes were distant and pensive. It made Yui feel unease. He hadn't even shown any signs of being shocked by the violence he had found them in. His voice had been too calm, too wintry as if it were a normal occurrence for such things to happen. Even in the moment he had looked at her, his expressionless eyes hadn't shown anything she could read on.  
  
Eyes that she didn't know if they were red or more of a magenta color that appeared to glow behind the lenses of his glasses.  
  
"There must be a reason for you to be here...," the man then gave a pointed look at the aggressive redhead that was thankfully a good distance away from Hannah now.  
  
"I don't know why they're here," no longer smirking, the annoyed voice of the redhead rung out. The air in the small sitting room they were in seemed to tense the more that particular boy talked.  
  
"My father...," she regretted speaking because the man's gaze was now on her. His stare made her instinctively stiffen. He looked at her like she was some kind of curious bug that he might dismiss from his memory soon.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
Having all his focus on her made her stammer over her words and she now could see annoyance flashing briefly in his eyes at hearing her clumsy explanation.  
  
"My name is Yui Komori. My father... My father is from the church and he told...," taking in a shaky breath from the cold of the inside of the room and her wet clothes, she continued as his cool stare stared unblinkingly at her, "... me that I am to stay here while he's away in Europe for a job... My friend Hannah Ito is here to keep me company..."  
  
He stayed silent. She didn't know what made her most nervous. His intense stare with detached refined features. Or his silence.  
  
_These boys are both so pale...,_ They seemed unreal. Ghostly even. Pale ivory with unusually bright eyes. One redhead and boyish, while the other one was tall with dark hair that framed his aristocratic features. The two boys were oddly beautiful to Yui, but it was an unapproachable icy beauty that gave off the same sensation that she had felt when she had gotten close to the mansion.  
  
"The church," that was all he said before looking at Hannah that was now subdued and had her own unreadable expression that perfectly matched his. If it weren't for her messy appearance, no one would be able to tell Hannah had been in a full rage just moments earlier. Yui envied being able to hide her own expressions that way. She was too easy to read and while her friend had quickly put her shields up, Yui's nervousness was very open to these strangers.  
  
"Someone has some explaining to do. You two follow me," having said what he needed to say, he walked away obviously expecting them to follow with no questions asked.  
  
About to get her luggage, she was stopped by his voice.  
  
"Leave it. It'll be taken taken care of," not even looking her way he disappeared into another room connected to the small sitting room.  
  
_I really hope this is just some misunderstanding and that this isn't the right place... Maybe they could give us directions-_  
  
Seeing she had no choice on the matter now that they were there already, she felt some small measure of comfort at having Hannah quietly grab her hand. Although wet and cold, Yui could feel the warmth of her friend's hand slowly seeping through to her palm.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things should move somewhat quickly after this chapter cause as I said, I want to moooove faster.
> 
> The next chapter might take awhile in coming sadly cause I just moved to San Paulo and my new neighbors are very super nice and they invited me and the family over for a party. (and these ppl party hard)
> 
> Hope y'all enjoyed! And happy late Christmas!


	3. Rules

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Expect to see some violence, swearing and Reiji asserting some dominance! The fun will start to begin!
> 
> Similarities with how In The Shadows started (at least until the next chapter) I just want to get the beginning out of the way already ahhhhh!
> 
> LONG AS FUCK CHAPTER JFC

One thing Hannah had become certain of ever since entering that place was that there was something that was abnormal about it's inhabitants. There had been an invisible charge in the air and a chill that seeped into her bones the instant she had stepped inside.  
  
She'd never felt such a sensation before. She wanted to compare it to something from her long forgotten past in order to calm herself but whatever it was it wasn't normal.  
  
She _hated_ not knowing everything around her. Familiar places were more comforting. People she knew were safe because she knew what to expect of them... All her life, she had learned that the best way to keep herself safe was to stay with what she knew and study quietly and with absolute distrust, what she didn't understand until she felt safe again.  
  
People could say she was too paranoid or too distrusting. People could say _a lot_ of things about her just because she wasn't exactly normal herself. At least as far as she was concerned. Yui knew of her paranoia and how difficult it was to get her to step out into unfamiliar situations. How tense she'd become and how she guarded her expressions until there was no more danger of the unknown.  
  
Her face was devoid of all emotion as she followed the still unnamed man that was leading them. He was tall and slender. She studied his back and the way he moved trying to guess how strong he was already just in case. He didn't appear to be much of a fighter in her eyes but he had broad shoulders despite his elegant form.  
  
Yui clutched her hand and deep down Hannah knew by that reaction that her concerns wasn't just her being her 'usual' self.  
  
 _She_ felt it too. It wasn't just in Hannah's head.  
  
There was something about that mansion and the two guys they've encountered so far that seemed familiar to her but no matter how much she tried to remember, her mind just kept itself blank... Leaving only an instinctive fear behind.  
  
There was nothing more scarier to her than being aware of something and yet not having all the answers.  
  
She didn't know who or even _what_ they were and that only meant that she should observe them until she could read them better. Everything would be much easier once she knew what to expect.  
  
 _These aren't Yui's relatives. Just what in the hell did her father get us into?_  
  
She knew Yui's father but that wouldn't stop her from placing blame on the man. He, by all appearances, looked like any average man in his forties. Ordinary even. Nothing about him was too suspicious at first glance. Greying brown hair and brown eyes. None of his features stood out.  
  
He was a priest in a nearby church. When she had been little and had first met Yui even she had found it odd for a priest to have a daughter but no one at the orphanage she had been raised in or at the boarding school both her and Yui studied in, treated it like an odd thing.  
  
Yui was simply his daughter and as far as she could see, the man cared about his daughter. He made sure she never lacked in anything and raised her to be the too sweet and too trusting teenaged girl she was now.  
  
Hannah was almost beginning to _resent_ the man for putting them there. She felt so stupid for not once predicting he'd do this. On the day Yui had told her about the trip, Hannah had been unpleasantly surprised at that unpredictable move because she thought she actually knew the man.  
  
She had started feeling unsafe at that moment but... She felt even more worry at the thought of letting Yui go alone. Over the years she had avoided attachment to a lot of people that tried to get too close to her. She was too moody, too cold and too closed off for most people to want to be around her long enough to be her friend. In kinder words, Hannah was a 'lost cause'.  
  
Yet Yui... She had been a constant from day one. The girl just didn't know when to quit and Hannah felt like protecting her. Even years ago, at age five, Hannah had seen Yui like a hazard to herself which could be sometimes humorous or alarming. Her trusting nature got her in trouble and a lot of time Hannah had to change her role of older sister to mother with the girl even though they only had eight months of age difference.  
  
Stepping into the unknown, she held her head up high giving the false appearance of calm. Just because she was scared out of her mind didn't mean _They_ would have to know it.  
  
They were lead into a large room. It looked more like a sparsely furnished living room with some couches. She couldn't help noticing that although the couches were similar in design and maybe even in age, they were all of different colors. Yet despite the contrast, the room didn't look like it was randomly put together.  
  
Taking a seat in one of the armchairs, the man that had lead them there signaled to one of the couches, "You may take a seat."  
  
Feeling Yui about to do just that, Hannah tightened her grip on her hand to stop her and said flatly, "We prefer to stand."  
  
At that, the man's odd eyes narrowed a fraction behind his glasses. This was clearly someone that wasn't used to having others refusing to do what they were told. Hannah could already sense that she had somehow made it to his shit list for just refusing to sit down.  
  
"Very well then," the brief annoyance he had shown was quickly hidden.  
  
Her back stiffened at feeling the tension rise. She could tell Yui was looking at her questioningly because it was clear that only _she_ could feel the change.  
  
More boys appeared. She didn't know how they had even shown up. Their arrival was noiseless and she knew that the weird tension was coming from them. For all she knew they'd probably been watching them quietly until just then.  
  
"Who are these lovely girls... ?! I could smell them from upstairs," the flirtatious tone had her glance at one of the boys with longish auburn hair that suddenly appeared on the couch the man had signaled them to sit on earlier. She got a bad feeling about this one. She didn't know if it was a trick of the light, but she could see an odd glow to his green eyed stare that was slightly shadowed by the brim of his fedora.  
  
"That's what we're here to find out. I know they're not here by mistake-"  
  
 _Wait, what the fuck? Just earlier this Glasses Man was acting like we were suspicious and now he says it's no mistake we're here-_  
  
"I just do not know why we weren't aware of their arrival and why there's two of them."  
  
 _Great, so they didn't know Yui was bringing me along. I told her to call beforehand to tell them but she said her father didn't give her a number to call. This whole thing is bullshit._  
  
Speaking up, she said calmly, "I know it's all short notice but if it's inconvenient, I could always leave."  
  
 _And take Yui with me_., she silently added.  
  
Hearing a loud scoff, she saw that dumb redhead that had jumped Yui sitting on another armchair. Nobody needed to tell her by the glare he was giving her that he was still pissed off at her. She could frankly care less. There was some satisfaction in seeing that the hair on top of his head was still slightly mussed. He had probably tried to tame the tangles from her gripping it earlier but the evidence was still there.  
  
She almost smirked at him and his eyes narrowed at noticing the amusement her briefly show on her face.  
  
"Leave...? Who said you could leave?" her heartbeat sped up at the calmly asked question by the tall Glasses Man that she now guessed had some sort of seniority over the other boys. He appeared older than them so she'd give him that.  
  
"Excuse me?" her voice was steady but inwardly she was everything but calm.  
  
"Why are all of you so noisy?! Your shouting reached all the way up to my room that even my coffin couldn't dull it out!" a rough angry voice sounded out somewhere too close to her. Turning to the sound she saw another boy that seemed to glare back at her in greeting. His hair was pale white and his sharp eyes were a blood red. Despite his height, he had a very young looking face. Even his scowl couldn't hide his boyish features. She could guess he was no older than sixteen at most.  
  
 _How the fuck do they keep showing up?! Are they coming out of the walls or something?!_  
  
Unable to suppress her shudder, she still hadn't forgotten what the man with glasses had said. Turning her attention to him again, she wanted to repeat her question, trying her hardest to keep a calm facade at seeing that now a smallish boy with lavender colored hair was now sitting on the couch next to the long haired one with the fedora. She hadn't even heard that one come in. He must have shown up quietly when she had been distracted by the loud angry white-haired one.  
  
 _Just a couple of seconds... How many of these freaks are there in here? There's five of them so far. The Little Shit, Glasses Man, The Kid, Angry Pale Boy and Flirty Hat._  
  
"What did you mean that we can't leave?"  
  
Sighing, the man with glasses folded his hands in front of him. He closed his eyes briefly. It was as if he found her question stupid. Like she had asked something with an obvious answer.  
  
Laughing airily, Flirty Hat exclaimed with amusement, "They're so cute! They really don't know that no one can just walk in here!"  
  
"Just what the _fuck_ are you going on about?" her snarled question quickly wiped the annoying little smile off the long haired one's face. She was getting so exasperated that she couldn't even hide it anymore.  
  
"Such vile language," her angry stare snapped coldly to the glasses wearing asshole. He looked at her as if she was no more than some spit out gum on the sidewalk for cursing in his presence. It was a look of disgust with disappointment.  
  
 _If it upsets him, he deserves it. Just what game is he playing at?!_  
  
Opening her mouth to speak again, she saw the Glasses Man raise his hand to stop her. His eyes didn't leave her when he quietly asked, "Were you aware of them?"  
  
She knew this wasn't directed at her. A couple of seconds passed after the question was asked that Hannah was beginning to think the question might not have been directed at anyone at all.  
  
After awhile yet another male voice spoke up from a couch close to the wall. The one laying on top of it seemed to take his time in answering as if just speaking was taxing for him. All she could tell was that he was just as ghostly pale as the rest of them and had tousled wavy blond hair that was slightly darker than Yui's. His was more golden while Yui's was much lighter.  
  
"Perhaps the other day... That Guy might have mentioned them coming here to stay with us, " his eyes remained closed while he explained. He obviously didn't want to be there talking to them.  
  
"And you couldn't inform us on the very day you were told that?" at the Glasses Man getting no answer from the now quiet blonde that she suspected was back to sleeping, Hannah could detect his irritation when he murmured the word "typical" as if speaking only to himself.  
  
"Oh so they're living with us?! We're going to have so much fun with them! Two bitch-chans! All to ourselves!" she knew that was the long-haired one. He had a particularly cheerful voice.  
  
"We can't kill them..." at hearing that from the tired blonde she had thought had fully dismissed them from his mind, Hannah knew all she needed to know.  
  
They needed to leave... _Now_.  
  
"Wait what?! We're supposed to just put up with this chinchinashi and the hell-spawned bitch in the house?!" the red-headed Little Shit snapped.  
  
"We can't kill them...? That's odd," The sickly pale smallish one with the lavender hair murmured and Hannah felt sickened at noting that he looked saddened by the news. Even the teddy bear with an eyepatch he held close to his chest protectively freaked her out.  
  
Seeing how they had became distracted by their complaining about literally keeping them alive, Hannah started pulling Yui little by little with her. Yui was trembling and as white as a sheet but she allowed herself to be guided, understanding the situation as well as she did.  
  
She didn't want to make any sudden moves to alert them that they were running the fuck out of that house.  
  
"You can do whatever you wish with them... Just don't kill them," the sleepy disinterest from the blonde laying on the couch was evident. He had been literally _forcing_ himself to speak the whole time. Hannah couldn't help feeling that if he hadn't opened his mouth to explain, Yui and her would have been dead already and he would have just shrugged it off.  
  
"And just where do you two think you're going?" hearing the Glasses Man ask them sharply as if they were misbehaving children Hannah took that as their cue since they no longer had any other choice. He had already spotted them backing away anyway.  
  
Gripping Yui's hand tightly, she almost dragged the small blonde with her and ran.  
  
*****  
  
Pain throbbed agonizingly on half of Hannah's face. The sharp pulsating pain was mainly concentrated on the left side of her jaw. She could taste blood in her mouth. Old blood that was thick and rusted in flavor.  
  
Swallowing without opening her eyes, she tried to wake up by slowly becoming aware of other sensations on her body other than feeling like her face had been trampled on by an elephant.  
  
She was on a soft surface. A blanket was covering her. There was the soft smell of fabric softener and dust. As if she was lying on something clean that hadn't been used in a long time.  
  
 _My clothes?! It's cold as fuck in here! Someone changed my clothes!_  
  
Her eyes snapped open at finally realizing that she was wearing a lot less clothes than she had come with. Sure, her clothes had gotten wet in the sudden rain outside but that didn't mean someone could remove her fucking clothes and dress her up in a thin nightgown while she was unconscious.  
  
Hearing breathing next to her, quickly she turned on what she now knew was a bed and almost sagged in relief.  
  
Under the faint orange glow of fading sunlight streaming through the window of the unknown room, Hannah could clearly make out Yui's small form next to her with their shared blanket up to her shoulders. The soft breaths of her friend heavily sleeping was a welcomed sound.  
  
 _What the fuck happened last night...?,_ with her whole head pounding now, Hannah was afraid of moving too suddenly again so she allowed her head to rest of the midly dusty pillow she had been using already. She knew the pain would only get worse if she moved too quickly with her bruised face.  
  
 _I was punched in the face!,_ memories of the night before came back to her. Her and Yui had ran through the mansion. She couldn't have gone through the front door because of how the couches in that large living room had been positioned so her only option had been to go deep into the mansion and hope they could find another door.  
  
And those bastards had hunted them down. It hadn't been them merely going after them. They had been _hunted_. A part of her had told her that if she had stayed put the night would have ended less painfully for her but she had never seen herself as the submissive type.  
  
 _Vampires. These fucks are vampires._  
  
She would have thought she was going crazy. Vampires only existed in mythology. In horror stories or crappy teen romance novels and maybe cheesy porn flicks. They were creatures that had been invented by humans in the olden days because humans didn't understand basic human decomposition and were dumb enough to think a bloating corpse inside a coffin was a fucking supernatural blood drinker.  
  
Such creatures didn't exist and live in old mansions... That was what she had wanted to believe but there was no denying what she had seen flashing in the dark while dragging Yui with her through the maze of halls in the mansion.  
  
Glowing eyes and white teeth that were too sharp. They moved so fast. Faster than her eyes could keep up with. Everytime she thought she found a safe place for them, those blood-suckers would appear to destroy whatever sense of safety they had even for a few moments.  
  
The mansion was like a trap with many halls and large and smaller rooms. Some rooms had been lit while others had been pitch black. She felt stupid for letting her panic get the best of her. Panicking only had confused her mind on the right steps to take.  
  
Her only thoughts had been on fighting to get her and Yui out of that house. She didn't care if they had to walk miles in the night in a mostly unknown town to get them away from those strange boys.  
  
Frowning, she recalled having grabbed something for a weapon. Yes... An antique looking candle holder. The metal of it had felt cool and smooth in her hand and she had foolishly believed that she could use it just in case one of Them found them again.  
  
She had been wrong. In one of the many dark rooms in the cursed building, a room that seemed to be close to gardens and was so blessed to have a glass door they could use, one of their unseen pursuers had grabbed her and yanked her forcefully away from Yui. Her arm had felt the strain of the powerful pull and she could hear Yui cry out in pain because she still hadn't let go off her.  
  
"Let her go!" Yui's voice had rang out in a echo. She could hear Yui rushing at whoever grabbed her. Hannah had wanted to yell at her to get back because the strength the guy had was shockingly powerful. He had managed to grab her so easily with just one arm but Yui still tried. She could feel her tugging at the guy.  
  
"If you keep struggling like that you'll only get hurt more! You two are really _stupid_ for running like that!" the one who had managed to separate Hannah from Yui had a rough voice. Hannah had inwardly scoffed at his words because if she didn't know any better she'd say this blood-sucker was trying to be helpful.  
  
She didn't know which one of them it was. It was too dark to see him but she knew he was definitely taller than her and that his slender body felt hard as if made of stone.  
  
 _Too cold.,_ that unnatural body temperature seeped through her wet clothes and chilled her deeply. The guy felt no different than a piece of meat just freshly pulled out of a freezer.  
  
That coldness made her feel more awakened with adrenaline. She _hated_ being cold. It had already become known to her that none of them were exactly normal. She had seen their glowing eyes and sharp fangs in the dark. How they moved so silently and quickly to discover them in whichever temporary hiding place they found. They weren't human. _Couldn't_ be human.  
  
 _Vampires!_ , that word kept repeating in her mind like some fucked up chant.  
  
Gritting her teeth, she had remembered the metal candleholder she still held and gave an angry yell as she swung it down with as much strength she could muster on top of the blood-sucker's head.  
  
Immediately she was released with a thunderous outraged _"FUCK!"_ that made her ears sting but she wasn't allowed to celebrate her newfound freedom for long. He didn't even give her seconds to get away.  
  
Being unable to see in the dark made her an easy target for his fist.  
  
 _And I was knocked out... Just like that.._., the thought that she was so easily handled like that was humiliating for her. Hannah wasn't a weak person. In the past she'd gotten in trouble one too many times because of her fists. If she felt threatened, her instincts would go wild with the need to survive and her reactions would be violent. It wasn't always intentional on her part but more of a reflex.  
  
That guy, whoever he was, had been too strong for even her. He had been able to hold her in a vice grip while having Yui pull at his icy hands. In fact, earlier when the one she had deemed as Little Shit, had grabbed Yui and thrown her on the couch, she hadn't had the strength to actually pull him off her friend.  
  
He only had gotten off Yui because she made his scalp hurt with her twisting his hair. Trying to pull him off hadn't actually done anything. Only the pain she had caused him did.  
  
Staring up at the dark ceiling above her, she tested how much damage was done to her cheek by running her tounge slightly over her teeth on that side.  
  
Wincing at the pain, she cursed at herself for her decision.  
  
Although her teeth weren't loosened like she had expected, her gums had bled and her inner cheek was obviously split from the force of her own teeth cutting her when being punched. That side of her face was probably twice it's original size now.  
  
 _I'll punch that asshole back!,_ her earlier fear now turned to full blown anger. Sitting up in the darkened room, she didn't even feel the pain of her cheek anymore. Her rage made her whole body feel energetic again.  
  
They seemed to be alone in whatever shadowy room they had been put in. She could get up and wake up Yui who still hadn't stirred. Yui was almost her size but Hannah knew she could carry the other girl if she absolutely had to do it.  
  
Especially when she was _pissed the fuck off_.  
  
Now sitting up, she shivered at how chilly the room actually was. She was only wearing a thin nightgown that she knew it wasn't hers. Liking warmth as much as she did, she never wore anything revealing. She hated showing off too much skin and getting frozen to death.  
  
Gritting her teeth, she forced her heavy numbed legs to come off the bed. Soon she felt carpeting under her bare feet and just as she was about to stand with the assistance of holding on to the bed's high headboard, light flooded the room instantly stopping her movements.  
  
"At least one of you is awake," the voice was pleasantly smooth but frigid and unapproachable. She didn't even have to look in his direction to know it was the Glasses Man standing in the doorway of the bedroom.  
  
Blinking her stinging eyes at the sudden brightness, she schooled her features to not show anything to this asshole. She was aware of how dangerous he could be without even having him being openly aggressive. She wouldn't forget the abnormal strength some of those bastards had shown her earlier. There was no doubt he was too strong for her to take on in her current state.  
  
Sitting back down on the mattress, she smoothed the short frilly skirting of the nightgown she was wearing to better cover her thighs that already had goosebumps from the room's chill. She finally looked at him after straightening her back.  
  
He hadn't said a word this whole time. It should make her more nervous but she was fully alert and watchful even though her eyes didn't show it. She kept her gaze free of anything that he could latch on to that could be used against her.  
  
Her protective shields were up and for a split second, Hannah thought some emotion appeared in the Glasses Man's apathetic stare.  
  
It didn't matter to her. For a couple of seconds that stretched on like an eternity she could feel like he was studying her just as much as she was studying him. To say the silence was awkward would be an understatement.  
  
"That candleholder," her brows almost rose at those words but she kept her expressionless mask perfectly in place.  
  
"That was a 17th century antique from France. Very valuable. And you broke it beyond repair on my youngest brother's head," he didn't show anger or anything of the sort and Hannah felt lost. Her and Yui were obviously kidnapped and the first thing this man wanted to talk about was a fucking candleholder.  
  
"I'm sorry about your younger brother," it hurt to talk but her voice had no betraying tremble. The last thing she wanted was to piss this one off when she didn't have a good backup plan so her best option for the time being was to be polite.  
  
He smiled and she inwardly shuddered. The smile didn't reach his oddly colored eyes and showed his painfully sharp looking fangs.  
  
"Silly little girl. Why are you assuming that I am upset about my brother? That _candleholder_ was a family heirloom."  
  
 _Well... Shit._  
  
"I'm sorry about your family heirloom," she flatly corrected and mentally cursed at seeing his fanged smile gradually leave his face.  
  
"It can't be helped, although... I hope that you will be less of a destructive nuisance in the future. You behaved foolishly the night before and because of that not only did you break a priceless object that belongs to the family, you also got yourself hurt for your fruitless attempts in leaving," every word he said placed the blame on her. She could feel the wave of failure everytime this man opened his mouth and she hated it. There was no apology for keeping them captive and frightening the crap out of them. This man was far from apologetic.  
  
No, he saw _her_ as the one to blame for everything and had no qualms in telling her so.  
  
"It was beyond bad manners for you to run about madly in someone else's home," he crossed his long arms, clearly not done reprimanding her with that emotionless voice.  
  
 _This guy is just as bad as those stiff nuns at the boarding school._..  
  
"Sorry about-"  
  
"Don't give me empty apologies because I am absolutely certain you'll do it again given the opportunity. Your behavior last night was reckless and vulgar. I expected better from girls from the church. Although you two are human, I would have preferred to see some basic manners from the two of you," she could see a faint curl to his lips as if he was having a hard time concealing his disgust with her.  
  
 _But what about you assholes?!,_ she shouted at him in her mind. _One of you grabbed Yui and then whined about not being allowed to kill us!_  
  
She kept herself silent and didn't look away from him. He was right, she _would_ do it again if it meant they were free. Apologizing again would just make him angry and would have him spit out more words of reproach at her. This vampire seemed like the kind of guy that would have nitpicking everything he could on others as a pastime. He was probably judging her at that very moment.  
  
Seeing if her back was actually as straight as ruler, if her face showed any fear. Just how tangled her hair was after waking up. This man unnerved her with his all-seeing stare.  
  
"I won't do it again..."  
  
 _Bullshit_.  
  
"I would like to believe that however due to your most unfortunate display of behavior you have made the rest of us be behind schedule," she waited already sensing he had more to say, "Now on to the matters I could have gone over with the two of you last night if you hadn't caused all that ruckus..."  
  
She tried hard to ignore just how he continued to needle at her for 'misbehaving'. He was pissed off with her. She understood that much, but that didn't mean he had to keep reminding her of it.  
  
"You two are now members of our household. You will be expected to act accordingly and what you did last night better not be repeated again," her heart skipped a beat. Her earlier bravery was still there but it was far lesser than before. This guy knew how to play the intimidation game a little too well and he knew he had an effect on her. In fact the atmosphere in the entire room felt tense because of him.  
  
He was _warning_ her.  
  
"Your actions can not only get you killed, but her as well," his cold eyes glanced at Yui still sleeping heavily beside her. "I can tell by looking at you that you aren't stupid by any means. Although you behave rashly you are fully aware of what your limits truly are."  
  
Her hands trembled slightly on her lap. That was all the emotion she was going to show to him. He was reading her and she quickly found out that she disliked how he'd easily figured her out. She needed to control her emotions further if she wanted to survive in that house.  
  
She was wounded, tired, hungry and confused. The fact that she'd been able to remain calm in his presence this entire time should be considered a small victory but she didn't feel like she had won.  
  
Winning would have meant she had absolutely no fear and he wouldn't be able to see right through her.  
  
"If you feel any form of concern for her well-being, you'd think things a bit more... _Carefully_ in the future."  
  
"I will...," she would definitely be more careful. Careful enough that even he wouldn't suspect a thing.  
  
"You two have been enrolled in Ryotei Gakuen," a small frown appeared on her face at the sudden change of subject but he continued on dully as if he were speaking words he had repeatedly countless times before. "Dinner is a six p.m sharp. All of us are to be at the table at that time."  
  
 _Great... Fucking rules_.  
  
"Classes start at eight on weeknights so I suggest you get accustomed to a new sleeping schedule. We prefer to go about our business at night for our own reasons and you'll be expected to do the same," her eyes widened at that.  
  
 _A night high school? Don't tell me more of these blood-suckers are there in this school..._  
  
"The limo for school leaves at 7:15 p.m. We do not wait on others. If neither of you are there at that time, you'll be punished for any delays," an odd glint appeared only for a second in his eyes when he said the word 'punished'.  
  
 _Should I pull out a pen and paper to write this down? I don't think I'll remember all this shit_.  
  
"The doors will be locked at all times," at that her face showed surprise and he gave a small smirk at her reaction, "You are considered a flight risk. We cannot very well allow to you roam too freely."  
  
 _Fucker!_  
  
"Though I do not wish to have you break more valuables, you'll be permitted to go wherever you wish in the mansion except for our private quarters and the attic. I am certain you know that you will be held responsible for your own mistakes if one of us decides to use you however he desires because you entered his private domain. I am ashamed to say that some of occupants in this house do as they so please and what they so please isn't always... _Proper_ ," his gloved fingers pushed at the center of his glasses,"Do you understand what I am saying, Ito-san?"  
  
 _Use us...? To drink blood, I mean..._  
  
She didn't want the fangs of any of these bastards anywhere near her or Yui so she gave a quiet nod.  
  
There were a million thoughts going through her mind but she only stuck to blood drinking. It was far safer than thinking of being brutally tortured, dismembered and maybe even raped. Since Yui's father had been the one to put them there and Hannah literally had no family, if either of them were killed no one would remember them or bother searching for them.  
  
They could be easily disposed of.  
  
 _With how they talked about killing last night, these guys must have killed before... And then there was how Little Shit had grabbed Yui without a problem and got on top of her..._  
  
She really didn't want to agree with this guy or follow his 'rules' but for now, his warnings made sense to her.  
  
 _And it pissed her off_.  
  
"We had to make some adjustments because there's two of you now," confused about how there being two of them made a difference, Hannah listened. "Normally we'd quickly finish off an offering but the rules have changed. As that lazy lay-about had so stated last night, we cannot dispose of you. We had a discussion about how we were to handle two of you because this definitely gives us more inconveniences."  
  
 _Dispose...? I knew it... They could kill us without a second thought._ , behind her detached facade, she paled slightly and somehow that pleased the Glasses Man.  
  
"You will have three days to decide which one of us will drink your blood," that's when she gaped at him, composure be damned to hell.  
  
 _Is he shitting me?! He's telling me we have to pick a guy to bite us_?!  
  
"Excuse me... You expect us to choose who will suck our blood while we're stuck here in your house?" it took a lot effort to not rage loudly at the guy. Her voice was flat. Even her shock was carefully hidden but inwardly she wanted to punch and scream at him.  
  
Sighing at her questions he pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes as if finding just talking to her like a tiresome chore.  
  
"It's either that or having all of us drain you slowly. Not to mention having the others do whatever else they feel like. Allowing you to _choose_ is but a small consideration that I now regret bestowing you with."  
  
Quickly closing her mouth, she forced herself to keep silent. The guy obviously didn't like being interrupted by her questioning.  
  
"With all these important matters are out of the way, I expect you and Komori-san to be in a more presentable state," he eyed her nightgown with the tiniest hint of distaste, "and downstairs in fifteen minutes. Dinner has already begun and we're being held back because of your resting."  
  
 _I wasn't 'resting', asshole? I was knocked the fuck out by that guy that I busted up with your precious candleholder._  
  
Hating him with every fiber of her being, she forced herself to nod submissively because the guy didn't like having her talking back. He had made that perfectly clear.  
  
 _With how he goes on about 'manners' I suppose I'll have to be properly behaved... At least when he's around._  
  
"Before coming down, you are to take this medicine," he placed a small black bottle on the top of the dresser beside the door. At her arching her eyebrow, he explained coolly, "It is medicine for the swelling you caused yourself with your actions-"  
  
 _Oh I really can't stand this guy_.  
  
"I do not want the other students at the academy to think something wrongful is occurring in our house," she shouldn't have found the truth behind his medicine surprising. He only offered it for appearance purposes and not out of consideration towards her 'self-inflicted' wound. "If you do not take it, I'll know and I will have no choice but to _force_ you to take it."  
  
 _This guy is serious._..  
  
Having said what needed to be said, his parting words before leaving the room were, "Your new uniforms and school supplies are on the armchair by the fireplace. I highly recommend getting ready quickly."  
  
*****  
  
They were brothers. The Sakamaki brothers. There were six of them in total. Hannah and Yui had been introduced to them once they had come downstairs to the vast dining room. Even though she now had names to go with their faces, Hannah still inwardly called them by the names she had given them.  
  
They were violent blood-sucking _monsters_. She didn't see a point in knowing their fucking names especially since she still had thoughts of getting her and Yui out of there once she had come up with a good plan.  
  
The Glasses Man that had guilt-tripping as a hobby was named Reiji. He was actually the second eldest of the group of brothers which puzzled her because of how he had handled the situation of them being there. She had been thinking that whole time he was the eldest or at least some sort of _leader_ of their group but he wasn't.  
  
They didn't seem to have an actual leader in their group at all which was going to complicate things for her because that meant she didn't know which one of the six she had to watch out the most for.  
  
The real eldest of the brothers was Shuu. The sleepy blonde that had told the other boys the night before that they couldn't kill them. He hadn't bothered doing any form of greeting when introduced and she hadn't expected him to. The guy had already been sitting on his seat at the dinner table with the food in front of him completely untouched. He didn't even open his eyes or make any sounds to acknowledge their presences there.  
  
 _He probably doesn't even hear us and if he did, he wouldn't care. He doesn't look like the type for conversation.._., Hannah noted the earbuds in his ears and how he slumped in his seat. His school uniform was rumpled which contrasted strongly with Reiji's painfully neat appearance. While Reiji looked like he was _poured_ into his perfectly ironed and lint free uniform without a single wrinkle in sight, Shuu looked like he had just picked up his clothes from the floor and put them on.  
  
 _Or slept with them on._  
  
The Little Shit that had glared at her like he wanted to jump at her and rip her head off with his bare hands was named Ayato. He was the eldest of triplets. If she thought Shuu was dressed messily, Ayato actually took the crown in that department. Most of his white school shirt was unbuttoned, showing his lily white chest and his school tie was around his neck like a noose. She wondered how the fuck this academy they went to allowed him to go dressed like that.  
  
 _Unless they only give a shit about how girls are dressed. That would be such horse shit. If he spreads his arms out I bet one of his nipples will slip out_.  
  
The second of the triplets was the lavender haired kid she had first assumed was the youngest. His name was Kanato. He was probably the smallest of the six in body size. He couldn't be much taller than her and she wasn't exactly tall herself, only being an inch or two taller than Yui herself. There was something that strongly unnerved her about him. He looked downright childish, vulnerable even, but his eyes that matched his hair had a dark quality to them.  
  
The dark bruise-colored eye bags under his flat pale lavender eyes gave him a sickly appearance and only made his unwavering stare on them more eerie.  
  
This was another one she had to watch out for. Well all of them gave her bad vibes but this one had looked a little too sad about not being allowed to kill them.  
  
 _He still has the teddy bear with him..._ , said creepy plush toy was settled on his lap and if she didn't know any better she'd say the thing was also looking at her with the same dark threatening air as it's owner.  
  
Laito, the third of the triplets, was the long-haired one that was wearing a fedora. He didn't look like he held a grudge towards her for cursing at him the night before but she wasn't letting her guard down. He wasn't doing anything outwardly offensive towards her but the way he looked at her with a slow smile that hid his sharp teeth made her skin crawl. It was like he was sizing her up and imagining something disgusting that he would love but she would absolutely hate. She never thought such a bad energy could come off a person but he made her feel like she was naked on a cold slab of stone at his mercy with his eyes alone...  
  
She had shuddered under his intense stare and she thought she heard a low giggle coming from him.  
  
The last of the brothers was Subaru. The white haired one with red eyes. He already appeared to be in a foul mood and he didn't even spare them a glance when his name came up. He only glared off to the side, his whole body tense with a muscle on the side of his cheek twitching slightly under his pure ivory colored skin. The irritation rolled off him and he looked like he was holding himself back...  
  
 _Don't tell me...? Is he the one that punched me on the jaw...?_ , the answer to her question was given soon when he finally looked at her from the corner of his eyes.  
  
His crimson eyes reflected annoyance. All directed at her.   
  
_If he expects an apology he's shit out of luck. That Reiji guy might see it as my fault but it's_ this guy's _fault for grabbing me while I was on full war mode._  
  
After introductions were made, they were instructed to eat. Even if she was hungry due to not having eaten since the day before, her throat felt like it was closed up by the tension in the large room. The dining room was cold and too quiet.  
  
 _They barely make a sound.,_ all she could hear was cutlery annoyingly scraping on the top of their plates. Even their chewing was silent...  
  
The sound of just the silverware could drive anyone crazy. Her hearing was hyper sensitive to it because of the deep fear she was trying to keep buried.  
  
"Bitch-chan...! You two should eat! You'll need all the nutrition you can get for three days from now...!" Laito's voice felt like a slap in the face because even though it was cheery in tone she could detect that he was mocking them.  
  
 _Three days. Three days..._  
  
Now she definitely didn't feel like eating. The food looked appetizing, more like the kind one would expect at a restaurant but how the fuck could she even eat a bite when reminded that they could get their blood sucked in a couple of days...?  
  
"That kind of talk isn't appropriate for the dinner table, Laito," Reiji informed impassively.  
  
"Why isn't it appropriate?!" Little Shit, also known as Ayato, suddenly snapped. "We're at the dinner table. Isn't this were people normally eat...? Why can't we talk about _food_ at the dinner table?"  
  
From her sitting place next to Laito, she could see Reiji close his eyes from across the table, hiding whatever exasperation he felt towards his loud sibling.  
  
"Ore-sama thinks we should all talk about _blood_ during dinner," Yui visibly shivered on her seat on Hannah's other side as Ayato brattily insisted on continuing on with the subject. She had picked up her fork to eat but her food was just as untouched as Hannah's.  
  
"We're here to eat food, not drink blood. That sort of activity is left to your private chambers," Reiji wasn't about to tolerate Ayato's nonsense.  
  
"This stupid dinner is pointless! We don't even need human food!" Subaru threw his fork loudly on the porcelain of his dinner plate. The harsh sound made her look in his direction curiously to see him standing up to leave already.  
  
 _They're brothers but their familial relationships suck._  
  
They acted like strangers forced to be together under the same roof. They barely looked or talked to each other and when they did... It was like a fight waiting to happen.  
  
 _And they all look different... Are they all really brothers?_  
  
She kept her questions to herself, not liking how the thickness in the air was making her feel. She still didn't fully know this bizarre family and until she knew them, she'd best be quiet and only observe them.  
  
"Dinner has become noisy now...," finally hearing Shuu speak for the first time in the night, her eyes moved to him and she was taken aback though she didn't show it outwardly. She hadn't known what his eye color was because he kept his eyes closed in his sleep but even from her seat across from him, she saw that his eyes were a startling shade of blue. An ocean blue that quickly disappeared when he lowered his eyelids again.  
  
"Don't act like you don't find this whole thing stupid, Shuu. We're only having these dinners because That Guy said we had to pretend to be a happy family, " Ayato muttered and got no response from Shuu that was already tuning them out once more.  
  
Her brows shot up at the mention of 'That Guy'.  
  
 _Isn't 'That Guy' the one behind all this shit? I need to find out whoever he is._..  
  
Mentally noting that down, she hadn't expected Ayato's next words.  
  
"Anyway, as Ore-sama was saying... Dinner is to _eat_ food, right?! " Yui suddenly yelped when he grabbed her hand and put her wrist flatly on the table with her veins looking up. The force of his actions made the whole long dinner table vibrate. Hannah had already been uneasy about having that particular vampire sitting at Yui's other side. He had attacked her once before already.  
  
In a rush Hannah was on her feet ready to grab the asshole that was smirking while pinning her friend's arm on the white tablecloth. With her straining veins under her skin vulnerably under his stare, Yui was already trying to hopelessly push him away.  
  
"Back the fuck off her...," his wide excited green eyes looked away from Yui's wrist to glare at her when she spoke warningly. Hannah was planning to punch him right in his smirking face if he so much as got close to her wrist.  
  
"Ayato. Three days," Reiji spoke up unhurriedly.  
  
The bratty vampire didn't move, his glare still meeting Hannah's cold stare.  
  
"Ayato," Reiji repeated his name again and Ayato finally pulled away with a disgusted sound. Yui hurriedly pulled her hand protectively to her chest as she quickly stood up to put some distance between them by standing next to a silently fuming Hannah.  
  
"Blood probably tastes like crap anyway," snorting at them, Ayato left the dining room as if completely giving up when Hannah knew better.  
  
He was angry about not getting his 'meal' from Yui.  
  
"Silence is what is most ideal during an evening meal," Reiji spoke as if only to himself. The guy was irritated by what had just happened. He might hide it well but all the noise at the table had made some of his mask finally slip.  
  
Eyeing a visibly shaken Yui from her peripheral, Hannah felt more resolve to get them out of there or at least keep them alive until they had a chance to do so.  
  
She needed to think things more carefully through. Reiji's words from earlier still stuck with her, reminding her that she was probably more under watch than Yui now because of how violent she had been from the start.  
  
 _God damn it_!  
  
Clenching her jaw, she forced herself to sit back down in front of her untouched food. She would have to play along with their shit for awhile.  
  
"Yui, we should eat," still standing watching her act, Yui didn't move right away to re-take her seat beside her. After a couple of moments of just staring at the back of her head as she forced herself to eat, Yui seemed to finally understand what Hannah was doing without needing to be told. Once her friend sat back down silently, Hannah felt some small relief.  
  
And another thing she felt, and admirably ignored, was Reiji's heavy stare on both of them from the other side of the table.  
  
Studying them to see if he could find anything suspicious to exploit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you'll now note Hannah is taking a different approach this time. She knows that she's going to be under more surveillance so her steps will be more careful.
> 
> (there's going to be a lot of similarities to ITS tho cos it's just the beginning. Things will then branch off into a very new story) 
> 
> Also, cos she's already pissed off Ayato and Shuu is a lazy dude that will be with his whole "I don't care" attitude in the beginning, there will be some more violent and maybe humorous interactions between Hannah and Ayato, tho they won't be side-paired. (depends on where my writing takes me)
> 
> LOL, I had to mention how menacing Kanato's damn Teddy can be. I was replaying his routes recently and that damn Teddy is creepy af. It can become possessed and assist Kanato in his own freaky shit.
> 
> And I'm sorry about Subaru getting hurt. Let's say the boy has the same quick reflexes as Hannah. He gets hurt and he'll throw a punch and Hannah is no different. He hadn't intended to punch her but once she busted him on the head he just immediately went "falcon punch!" on her out of instinct.
> 
> Sorry if the first chapters are uneventful but I just want to re-establish first impressions and it's tedious for me. 
> 
> PS: we'll find out what happened to Yui's cellphone in the next chapter. XD
> 
> I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter! Please leave a review and/or kudos if you're liking this so far! XD


	4. Secrets Best Left Buried

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First attempt to write Shuu's pov. I'm used to writing everyone BUT this guy. He isn't even my fave (shock) but I wanted to write for him as a challenge for myself. His pov might be sucky but I'm hoping when things get fun, he'll be easier to write.
> 
> If you've read ITS just know I'm a constant chapter fix whore. This chapter is still under revision.

The soft music of Lamento sopra la morte di Ferdinando III couldn't even dull out the sounds occurring inside the mansion. Maybe one of Vivaldi's intense string concertos would drown out the new chaos that had momentarily interrupted their lives.  
  
Shuu knew it was only for awhile. The _noise_. It always was. The sacrifices and brides that brought in their disruption into their lives never lasted forever. They would come and try an futile attempt at survival only to fail in some irreversible way. He had seen, or more like _heard_ , it happening repeatedly over the years.   
  
These new ones would go just like the others. He wouldn't even need to wait for weeks for their sounds to stop and for their pure savory blood scent to disappear with them. In time their noises would be gone to give their house some very needed and yearned for quietness again. It was just a part of their cycle. Things would go quiet after they were gone and then _new_ annoyances would replace them after a couple of weeks had passed. 

Even being told to keep them alive didn't always work.  
  
Detached from it all, he couldn't bring it in himself to feel any sort of sympathy. He hadn't had that emotion in him for a long time and he didn't think he'd know what it was if he felt it again. His world just consisted of him not acknowledging life's existence itself.  
  
More clicks and footsteps sounded out. Those sounds accompanied his music along with their hushed whispers.

They were opening doors and checking their surroundings in a multitude of rooms. 

The noises were too subtle for a human ear to detect in such a large house but even with the music he drowned himself in, he still could hear the two new girls that were death sentenced, moving in what they laughingly assumed was silence.  
  
Numbing himself to them, he changed his music to Vivaldi like he had originally intended. Soon a more louder and passionate melody filled his earbuds and he remained laying on the corner he had found for himself in one of the many unlit hallways of the mansion.  
  
If they found him in their not-so-subtle house exploration, he wouldn't care. As long as they weren't loud enough to rouse him off his spot on the floor. They had already been too noisy in their first night with one of them attempting to fight off Subaru and the other one screaming until Reiji had to drug her to finally silence her.  
  
If he laid there long enough until falling into a deep sleep, Shuu would be as unmoving as a corpse. It was an ideal state. Being in so deeply in dark dreamless slumber that he no longer felt he was even a part of himself. His limbs would be too heavy to feel any sensations and his ears would no longer hear the inhabitants of the mansion or even the music. It would all just vanish completely and leave nothing.  
  
Nothingness was emotionless. It was cold and comforting the few times he achieved it. Whenever he was in that vast sense of emptiness he was finally soothed even for a short while.  
  
Their footsteps grew nearer to him.  
  
He couldn't wait until they were completely gone. Someone would think him too cruel in wishing them death but to him they were just an unwelcomed disturbance. They reminded him he was alive and laying on a hard cold floor with his music failing to muffle them _still breathing_.  
  
The back of his throat felt itchy as if scraped with sandpaper and it served as yet another reminder that he hadn't fed in a long time. Wrestling with a meal took too much effort and he sometimes went on for too long without looking for some foolish human to sink his fangs into.  
  
In school he may have lured a lustful girl or two to come close to him and willingly allow their throats to be vulnerable for his fangs. He could be convincing when he wished to get something but even that was taxing for him and he would go on days and even weeks without drinking blood. He'd starve himself in a sense until his body was too weakened to even sit up and he'd fall into that blessed sleep he so enjoyed.  
  
That empty sleep.  
  
If only his throat didn't have to hurt to accomplish it. That was the only drawback to his eternal cycle. He'd exhaust himself and would ignore the world until that uncontrollable increasing burn would return forcing him to move once again to feed.  
  
And then he'd go back to his dormant state until it started all over again. It was comfortable for him. He didn't feel any attachments towards this life. Pretending the world wasn't there was an easy task... As long as it was _quiet_.  
  
And it was hardly ever quiet. Even if he went deeply into the woods away from the mansion, he'd still hear things humans ears couldn't hear. The growls of predatory animals and the screeches of their dying prey. The cracking of the tree branches whenever a bird stepped daintily on them. And then there was the bugs and the annoying heat that came from the sun during the daylight hours.  
  
The sun couldn't harm him but the brightness seemingly beating down on him with its infernal heat and the reddish orange glow that would filter through his eyelids made staying outside forever an impossible thing for him to do.  
  
" _Aw, bitch-chans! It looks like fate has us intertwined on this fine morning...!"_ Laito exclaimed breathily somewhere a hallway away. That triplet must have sniffed them out and went to their location to toy with them.  
  
Shuu wasn't surprised at feeling tension so thick it permeated the air after his younger brother spoke. It was the fear the girls instinctively felt at having Laito suddenly in front of them. The scent of their trepidation was so intense he could almost taste it. It was syrupy and so sickeningly sweet that his tounge felt heavy inside his mouth and the dull ache in the back of his throat now became a powerful throbbing.  
  
 _The fear in their blood doesn't smell so bad...,_ he could feel something inside of him stirring quietly. Even his lips curved at the corners in the semblance of a smile at the taste of it in the atmosphere. He could tell their fear would make their blood thicker and flow more abundantly by the lightest scrape of a fang.   
  
" _Laito-kun_...," a girlish voice greeted quietly. Shuu tried to put her voice with a face. He hadn't really looked at their newest pray save for a brief glance at the dinner table. Not having felt the need to know their faces he had only seen them briefly in a subconscious manner of someone looking blankly at any other room without taking every single detail in.  
  
There was one blond and another one with black hair. He guessed the girlish voice belonged to the blonde. She looked almost childish to him the short moments he'd seen her. Looking much younger than the age Reiji had put in her school documents for enrollment.  
  
 _"Now what's with those faces?! You look so_ unhappy _to see Laito-kun...!"_ Laito's voice was a combination between teasing and mock sadness.  
  
 _"Um... You just surprised us, that's all,"_ the girl murmured.  
  
 _"Ah, did I?! I didn't mean to startle you! I just wanted to be nice and_ help _you find what you were looking for_!"  
  
" _We're only learning the house. We're not looking for anything,_ " the new voice now speaking was low and husky. Womanly. It was toneless in sound as if the owner of said voice didn't show anything to who she was speaking to. There was no hint of uncertainty from her when she said it.   
  
She was calm outwardly despite the savory fear she emanated along with her friend. He could almost sense Laito's confusion at her flat honest response.  
  
 _She lies so easily_., logic told him she was lying regardless of how her scent and increased heartbeat only showed discomfort. She hid her deception well along with the steadiness of her voice. It was no wonder Laito was puzzled by her. She could have easily fooled a vampire with that abnormal control she had with shielding herself.  
  
He assumed that was the black haired one. The one that had an almost doll-like face and sharp silvery eyes. Her stillness the night before made her look as if frozen of all emotion and only doing the required movements to eat the food in front of her. Reiji had mentioned something about keeping a close eye on her but Shuu hadn't paid his words any mind.  
  
Whatever troubles she got herself into weren't his concern. The sooner her and her friend were dealt with, the better it would be for him.  
  
 _"Is that so...?"_ Laito's voice lowered and the fear Shuu had practically scented increased to a fevered pitch.  
  
" _Yes. Reiji-san didn't give us a tour_ ," the black haired girl supplied and some silence passed. Shuu didn't know what was going on and he didn't care. He only wished Laito would go about his games somewhere further away from his current resting place.  
  
But the fear felt and tasted so good. It would have been better if he didn't hear their voices along with it cutting into the melody of stringed instruments lightly carresing his ears.  
  
" _Why didn't you say so before?! Leave the grand tour to Laito-kun...!_ " the cheeriness returned to Laito's voice. Whatever irritation he'd had moments prior was gone and replaced with that false welcoming voice that Shuu had seen too many girls believe in the past.  
  
" _We could learn it on our own,"_ the black haired girl spoke with a dulled tone of finality. The dismissive quality was nearly laughable. That girl didn't know Laito enough to learn that he was the kind that would never stop when rejected.  
  
 _"Oh but I_ insist _! If we're lucky enough we could get that_ rude _Reiji-san to allow us to go to the gardens for a stroll. Wouldn't you enjoy that? It's a beautiful morning and the rain has finally stopped,"_ his brother's words were beckoning. Urging them subconsciously to trust him even for a short while.  
  
" _Won't it hurt...?_ " the blonde asked quietly.  
  
" _What would hurt?_ " Laito asked in return, obviously confused.  
  
" _The sun...? Doesn't it hurt vampires_?"  
  
A giggle rung out, cutting more into the quietness Shuu so wanted.  
  
" _No, no! That's some silly made up human myth! The sun doesn't harm us! It can be annoying at times but we won't_ burst up in flames _from simply stepping outside. Don't tell me you were concerned,"_ Laito's amusement was now positively penetrating Shuu's eardrums. He was feeling like he no longer had a choice but to stand and go over to them to tell them all to _shut up._  
  
Standing up slowly made his body feel all the more heavier than it normally should. Making his eyes open even slightly to see where he was going was adding even more to his growing irritation at all the infernal racket they had in that other hallway.  
  
Changing his music to one of Bach's violin solo sonatas, he forced himself to walk to were they were. The sound calmed him again but did nothing to quiet their voices once and for all. His thirst became more pronounced when he was just feet away from them. He could literally hear the blood of the two girls coursing through their untouched veins.  
  
He needed to feed again. He barely could remember the face of the last human he'd fed from. It might have been some foreign tourist. A girl with lightly freckled skin and dark auburn hair. Her blood had tasted foul with birth control mixed with drugs and whatever alcohol she had drank before he had caught her resting on the bench of a park.  
  
He was now standing behind both girls. His steps were silent and unhurried. He knew they didn't hear him approach yet Laito could see him due to being in front of them and his green eyes widened ever so slightly at his appearance.  
  
"Couldn't you have your little conversation somewhere else other than where I'm sleeping? " he asked quietly making both girls finally jump and quickly step to the side to give him a wide berth.  
  
"Oh, Shuu-san! I didn't even feel you in the house! It's so easy to _forget_ you're here at all!" he detected Laito's barbed tone. His brother was clearly irritated about being interrupted and Shuu was beyond caring about whatever insults the triplet had in his mind aimed his way. Whatever others thought of him never concerned him. They may think whatever they desired as long as they didn't come to annoy him.  
  
His thirst was closing his throat now and he finally looked at the two girls that Laito had been so interested in. Shuu could easily grab one of them and subdue them to tap into their vein. It wouldn't take long, even in his weakened state, to just pin one of those girls down and dig painfully deep into her neck until his fangs passed the muscle and met the bone underneath.  
  
His eyes must have shown his dark thoughts because he saw the black haired one grab the youngish looking blond to pull her protectively to her side. It was a discreet move and she didn't show any betraying emotion of suspicion of him when doing it.  
  
That simple movement made him more aware of her.  
  
Her neck was exposed by her hair being messily piled up on the back of her head. It was a pure white neck with the subtle outlines of her pulsating veins. If Shuu were a judge of beauty he'd say her throat was elegant and could even imagine how his fingers would look wrapped around it as she gasped in her death throes for breath.  
  
It wasn't really a sexual need but more like his thirst dulling his thinking and making him want to _hurt_ her in order to feed from her. After getting what he wanted from his prey he didn't need for anything else from them. She would be the same as everybody else.  
  
Just a warm meal with a pretty neck out in plain view.  
  
He could tell that she was aware of what he was thinking when he stared at her emptily. His face had no expression but his flat stare had just enough intensity to make her keep herself guarded and ready.  
  
"We'll keep the noise down," her lips moved as she spoke and he noted that but had already thought of dismissing all three of them from his mind.  
  
He will go to his room even though his room was no better. At least none of them would enter it. The only one bold enough to bother him even there was Reiji with his low insults whenever he felt obligated to speak to him about some household manner that he didn't care about.  
  
Closing his eyes, he decided he was done talking for the day and left the three of them standing in the hall.  
  
*****  
  
The triplets took all classes with them. Hannah didn't know if it was intentional but if her and Yui didn't take a class with all of them, they took class with at least one of them.  
  
And those three made it a point to be obvious in watching them. Even when they weren't around she could still _feel_ their eyes.  
  
It became clear to her when she had asked to go to the bathroom during one of their classes. She had wanted to discreetly look for a phone in the school or at least find a lone student in the halls that had a cellphone.  
  
She should have known it wasn't going to be that easy. Their eyes had not only followed her as she stood up from her desk in their classroom to leave but she still eerily felt the heavy sensation of their stares as she had investigated the halls.  
  
It had taken her some time to see _exactly_ what was watching her. When she had been walking through the halls she had kept hearing the light fluttering of wind accompanied by a small squeaking. The sound was louder whenever she walked past the tall large windows in the school.  
  
At first she had ignored it but when the sounds had continued, she gave into her suspicions and looked out the window from the corner of her eyes without stopping her quick pace in the hallway.  
  
A bat. As cliche as that was to her. It was definitely a _bat_ that was following her around. It immediately became evident that this wasn't a mere coincidence. The bat was too intelligent in its pursuit of her. As if it were controlled with its small red glowing eyes watching her every move as it flew at the same fast pace as her walking.  
  
 _Don't tell me one of them sent that to keep an eye on me. This is the last shit I need right now._.., hiding her annoyance, she'd had to give up her search for a phone for their first night of school. Without showing that she was aware of it, she'd abruptly turned around and went back to her class that had those _creeps_ there waiting for her.  
  
Hannah didn't want to give up and wait until their three days were up. If she did that it meant she'd have to choose one of them to take her blood. The mere thought of those lethally pointy fangs piercing her or Yui's veins left her cold. She didn't know what would happen if they were bitten by them.  
  
Would they be turned into vampires from a bite alone? Or would they just die?  
  
She had once seen a movie in which vampire victims were turned to zombie-like creatures after they were bitten. She doubted it could come to that but one never truly knew.  
  
 _I barely know what exactly real vampires can do and it makes this even more fucked up._  
  
All she knew about them was that they were cold, needed blood, didn't actually need 'human food' for sustenance and were too strong for her to simply punch unconscious or even successfully push away.  
  
Then there was that little _bat_ friend that followed her around in school and Laito's revelation about the sun.   
  
His unfortunate news had disappointed her. It had been a struggle to control her features when he told them the sun wasn't dangerous for them.

If the sun had been able to do them damage she would have happily dragged every single one of them in their pajamas to blister under the early morning rays of light. She had expected the blood-suckers to be asleep in some coffins to hide during the day but no, with her shit luck, the bastards were very much _awake_ and moving around the mansion.  
  
Movies hadn't prepared for her this. In movies a hunter would find a vampire in their coffin sleeping like the dead and would easily stab a stake through their chests. They'd scream and twist in bone-shattering ways and would vomit a gory fountain of blood of their previous victims before turning into ash.  
  
These guys however didn't look like they'd go down without a fight even in their sleep. Not after that Little Shit, Ayato, had snatched her friend so suddenly during his nap. No, these guys weren't the sort that could be taken by surprise, least of all by someone that already made them suspicious.  
  
 _Like me... I'm being watched more than Yui is. The house is even locked the fuck up_.  
  
Reiji hadn't been lying about keeping the house locked because she was a 'flight risk'. The doors to the gardens she had gotten so close to on the first night now had chains keeping them locked from her and when she tried the front door...

It had _predictably_ been locked too.   
  
Hannah felt suffocated with every hour she was inside that mansion. Her throat was tight and her lungs ached even _breathing_ inside that house. She wasn't much of an outdoor person but being locked up in such a way was really getting to her. The thought of raging and breaking one of the tall windows with a chair had crossed her mind but her paranoia came up with the scenario of her being immediately caught after getting outside and _tortured_ for it.  
  
Reiji already had it in for her because of that _fucking candleholder_. It was stupid but she could swear the guy was being meaner to her than Yui for just breaking shit. If she broke one of his perfectly shiny windows she was sure there'd be hell to pay. Not only for her but for Yui. She hadn't missed the veiled threat Reiji had directed towards Yui after their first night.  
  
Whatever she did that annoyed them could be taken out on her friend. If Yui hadn't been under any threat, she would have been wrecking the place. When in fear Hannah almost disregarded her own safety completely. It was one of her major flaws.  
  
All she wanted to do was get rid of the threat. That was all she focused on when frightened. It was more of a reflex for self-preservation.   
  
_I can't even do that here..._  
  
Her own fear reflexes were going to cause her and Yui a world of shit if she couldn't keep herself calm.  
  
Having those vampires popping up randomly all over the mansion and the school only worsened her present state of mind. Ayato thought he was some kind of bratty Casanova. He had even declared imperiously that he wouldn't _need_ to do anything to be chosen by them because they already 'knew' he was the 'right' pick in one of their school's hallways.  
  
Laito... That particular triplet honestly made her skin crawl. His cheerful attitude didn't fool her in the slightest. He had a fathomless darkness in his cat-like eyes. She could see it whenever he looked her way. It undressed her, exposed her and left her feeling a deeply rooted dirtness behind that lingered for too long. She didn't want to find out what was truly hidden behind those eyes of his.  
  
Kanato, on their very first night of school, showed his true colors. It had been when that creepy plush toy of his had been accidentally knocked off his desk by a passing student. The explosive tantrum the boy had thrown had deeply disturbed Hannah.  
  
His shouts of outrage and vicious threats had been loud enough to make her hold her breath apprehensively as if he had been directing all that anger at her. Ayato had laughed it off saying he was a hysterical brat and to just ignore him. His complete disregard for Kanato's obviously murderous fit made it clear that this was a regular occurrence.  
  
 _I didn't see the student that knocked his teddy bear down for the rest of the night... And that weird Kanato kid was a little too happy even after all that shouting.  
_  
Hannah didn't want to think that these guys would easily kill in school of all places but then again she never would have guessed vampires even went to school and could walk unharmed under the sun.  
  
The school itself was strange. The students looked like they were all human but the Sakamaki brothers seemed to hold some sort of power over the school itself. People hadn't put much attention on Kanato's tantrum. Even the professors appeared to be used to it. They all had turned a blind eye to the disruption the vampires brought with them.  
  
She had a feeling that they could get away with a lot of things in that school. Something gave them special privileges. It was obviously a costly school despite it's lack of working phones.   
  
As for the other brothers, she barely saw that Subaru guy around. He was a grade lower than her and Yui so she hadn't really expected to see him regularly in school, but she didn't even see him that much in the mansion itself. He was one of the brothers that looked completely disinterested in them. In fact he appeared to be avoiding them altogether. Whenever they did see him, he would be visibly annoyed and abruptly leaving the room they went into that happened to have him in it. As if he couldn't bear to be around them for prolonged periods of time.  
  
Hannah assumed he was still mad at her for hitting him. _ _  
  
__If he hadn't forgotten her busting his head, she hadn't forgotten him punching her face. The bruise might be gone because she forced herself to drink the nasty shit Reiji had left for her, but she still felt her jaw ache at the memory of it.  
  
The nasty 'medicine' did its job but she hadn't taken it to stop her pain. She'd only taken it because she couldn't stand the thought of Reiji _touching_ her to shove that vile tasting concoction down her throat. He definitely looked like the type to force others to do what he wanted if they disobeyed him.  
  
Reiji was another brother that she felt she needed to look out for, at least where _she_ was concerned. That guy showed no interest in Yui. Even seemed dismissive of her, but with Hannah, he looked like he wanted to get under her skin.  
  
He was the one with the idea to lock up the house in the first place and told her the 'rules'.  
  
Then the last one of them that she had often overlooked was the mostly absent Shuu. He seemed more like a ghost than a vampire. Laito had been right about it being easy to forget he was even there. The few times she'd seen him he'd been asleep or walking away probably to his next napping destination away from whoever had found him.   
  
He rarely spoke. Not even when Reiji spoke to him. He took his precious time in answering anything directed his way. Like he tuned people out so completely that his mind was slow in processing when others were actually speaking to him or he just ignored them because he didn't see a point in giving any responses.  
  
Hannah was guessing the guy simply didn't care about his surroundings and much less about other vampires and people.  
  
 _He's still one of Them_..., regardless of him being the one they had the least interactions with, Hannah still saw him as much as a threat as the rest of them. That dark tension each of the blood-suckers appeared to emit by nature was also with him.  
  
She didn't know how the other students at school hadn't sensed just how _odd_ the Sakamaki brothers were. They literally _radiated_ threat and nobody seemed to see that there was something clearly _wrong_ with them.   
  
Yui wasn't very good at judging people at first glance but even _she_ had noticed it from the start. Hannah wondered if having both of them deemed as 'food' was what made the vampires feel so threatening. Other people didn't see it but Yui and Hannah definitely did...   
  
_Some of them have directly called us 'food' to our faces so that might be it..._

They were being held _captive_ by the vampires. That much was obvious in their vigilance and how they had conveniently cut off all communication. Even Yui's cellphone had been broken by them. 

Both of them had found it inside Yui's luggage after their fruitless and interrupted house search. What had been the remains of Yui's phone had lain shattered into many irreparable pieces that told Hannah everything she needed to know. 

These guys weren't planning on letting them just walk out of that mansion free. With locked doors, no phones and even bats following her around, Hannah was almost completely and utterly rendered useless. 

_"I'll find a way. It might get me killed, but I'll definitely find a way," she had told Yui once they had discovered her phone_. 

But even though Hannah had told her those words of reassurance, even she was having a difficult time believing them herself. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lmao, Shuu is such a bad man. He would rather see the brides dead than interrupting his music. I just wanted to highlight how detached he is from feeling compassion for their predicament. He doesn't see the girls as his problem and any other views about them is of convenient food. His viewpoint will change however, obviously, but even then he'll be a bit of a douche anyways.
> 
> And Reiji and Hannah don't really get along in the start. In ITS he was obsessed with her to the point he went crazy. In here he just suspects her and sees her as trouble waiting to happen. 
> 
> About similarities between the beginnings of ITS and Theirs. When I first wrote ITS I wanted to use a beginning familiar to DL fans with an OC thrust in so they could easily get used to her. I decided to do a similar thing here except for using a little butterfly effect. There were small things here and there that could shape the story later on. 
> 
> One of them was that damned candleholder, lol. 
> 
> The beginning of this one will be super slow. These guys aren't a Laito or Ayato. Laito is a very dark character and I'd say he's the darkest Sakamaki so his relationship with Hannah was extremely twisted and pretty much horrifying. While Ayato forced himself into the story with his persistent brattiness and deep hatred for his mother. 
> 
> In here Hannah's torture will be more of a moral one, while Yui's will be more powerful. Unlike in ITS in which Hannah got the worst of it. (tho I don't see Yui suffering with Reiji as much as Hannah did with Laito. There will also be a moral conflict with Yui in here)
> 
> Hope y'all liked this chapter. And yes I deleted the previous one cos I hated it and I had this one in drafts as a potential next chapter.
> 
> Ps: HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!
> 
> (also. If some of y'all came from ITS, I'm pretty sure y'all remember the girl has her own trauma going on. This time around, I made her know everything. She's just in denial of it instead of having amnesia. 
> 
> On to other things. Idk if I'll even continue this story for the time being cos of the following: I've got a lot of ideas that don't fit in this story and ongoing fanfics. Plus, I'm playing more dark games. It's like my brain is mush😭😱)


	5. Lambs To Be Slaughtered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: for mentions of being torn to shreds, nonconsensual biting, sex and Reiji raging internally about Shuu wilding sometimes. Dark humor. Reiji-level savagery. 
> 
> Yui and Reiji's povs. Shorter chapter that concentrates more on thinking.

_One more night._  
  
That's all they had left. Just one more night. Time went too slowly in the passing hours of just waiting for the final moment to choose. The last few days had been uneventful. _Too_ uneventful if anyone asked Yui. She couldn't stop thinking that this was only the calm before a perfect storm waiting to happen.  
  
Things had fallen into an easy routine. They'd get ready at five in the evening, would eat at six and then would go to school at seven. As long as they stuck together they could handle whichever brothers approached them and the vampires... Seemed to be just biding their time to give them some false sense of security before making their own move.  
  
Just like Hannah and Yui had feigned acceptance of their fate, they feigned patience. It was like both of them were standing bleeding inside a den of hungry unknown monsters that were caged until they would be finally released for their time to feast. Yui couldn't describe it any other way. Their eyes would glitter and they'd show their fangs whenever they spoke or smiled and their presences seemed to somehow become increasingly _colder_ with the passing hours. They didn't need to even touch her and her friend for both of them to feel their intent. There was growing hunger behind their torturous patience.  
  
 _Are they toying with us?_  
  
She couldn't see it any other way. Even Ayato was playing along with it when he had been the most aggressive one from the first night. She was starting to think that even if they were given a choice that they'd still be in danger with _all_ of them. They barely had any rules to begin with in the mansion. Each vampire was left to his own devices and all seemed uncaring of what the others did. The only one that looked like he tried to keep some sort of civilized order in the house was Reiji himself and even that, Yui suspected, must have its limits.   
  
That could be the reason why she didn't see them trying so hard to win them over. They weren't going to stop even if they chose. Both of them were truly prey for all of them. If Reiji knew or sensed what was going on he didn't give any indications of it or perhaps didn't care about whatever fate befell them.  
  
Maybe Hannah's paranoia was rubbing off on her after all... Or maybe it was only her making up these negative thoughts in her head from too much over-thinking. The closer the day came, the more these feelings of dread would grow. She could almost feel Them breathing down her neck.  
  
It was pure fear. She was afraid of what was going to be set into motion once they chose. There was something waiting for the right time to strike out at them.  
  
 _Or it could be something inside of her making her think this.._.  
  
Yui had nightmares about it. Vivid nightmares that left her waking up as if she had been drowning in her sleep. She'd dream of so many hands, grabbing her and pinning her down. They'd tear at her clothes to get to her vulnerable skin underneath and many pinpricks of piercing hot pain would overwhelm her.

_She would even smell the iron scent of her own spilled blood._

  
Her breasts, her inner thighs, her ankles and even her fingertips would have their hungry lips bringing that pain. They would always leave no part of her unmarked. Many bites would cover her body and she'd feel her bones bending and being stretched by the sheer force they used to keep her restrained for their assault. She would practically _hear_ her bones breaking and they'd sound like splintering wood.   
  
Their fangs would dig at her and would pull at her tender flesh cruelly if she tried to move away. Their sharp canines would pinch and slice at her, going as far as taking pieces of her flesh along with them. Her cries would increase in volume but they would always fall on deaf ears during these dreams. It was like she was alone in the world with that darkness and they, with their cold hands and pretty yet inhuman eyes, were the only ones there to keep her company.  
  
No one would come for her as they feasted on her. Their possessiveness for her blood was palpable. They all wanted to tear her apart, to break her bones and take every last bit of blood she had.  
  
There was no mercy to be found in them. In the ending of her dreams her screams would eventually die out as her body became numbed during their ravenous attack. Her weakened struggles would stop and all she would be left hearing was their hungry wet sucking and languid licking of her spilled blood covering her shattered limbs. They would moan in pleasure at the taste of her. Their sounds would be shamefully vulgar and animalistic.  
  
The nightmare wouldn't change each time. It always remained the same. She thought it was her mind playing tricks on her but she was beginning to believe those were _memories_. That could be the only explanation why she could truly feel them touching her and feasting on her even in her dreams. Her flesh had _experienced_ the deep penetrating wounds of fangs before.  
  
She was too scared of telling Hannah about her nightmares. Yui wasn't one to believe in premonitions but even then... _Something_ in that mansion made her think that she was going to die there someday. If her death wasn't caused by the vampires, it would be in that mansion.  
  
Guilt ate away at her because she knew that Hannah was stuck just as much as she was because she had convinced her to come along. Her friend hadn't mentioned anything accusatory about their new 'home' but Yui still knew she was at fault.  
  
 _Why would my father send us here...?_ , she didn't want to continue that dangerous train of thought. Just thinking that her father would knowingly send her and her childhood friend into a house full of vampires chilled her blood.  
  
They were purposely being kept from finding phones. That much was clear. Yui already had a couple of people in mind that she would call but even then she felt that it would serve for nothing. The only one that had any form of legal authority to take them out of that house was her father that _put them there in the first place._  
  
She still had the note with the address her father had given to her. It was the mansion but her naive mind wanted to believe it was all a lie. Her father wouldn't be capable of doing such a thing, would he?  
  
 _What kind of father would do that to their only daughter?_  
  
Her father had always been there for her, protecting her. A dark logical side of her told her that he had sacrificed her and left the country to not see what would become of her in that place. Like he was turning a blind eye to her impending death. That perhaps she was _nothing more_ than another victim of those vampire boys that were intent on isolating them from everyone that wasn't themselves.  
  
She couldn't even talk to the other students in their new school without one of the triplets being nearby. Everything was being monitored and Yui hated to even suspect this but... Even when she was in the bathroom she'd feel Them. She would think she could faintly hear footsteps outside the bathroom door of someone just standing there, _breathing_ in her scent as she bathed. Only having a thin barrier of polished old wood separating her from whoever paced the halls always made her rush to get dressed in hopes they wouldn't burst in to find her so vulnerably exposed.  
  
Hannah kept silent on her own fears and hadn't even told her of her plans. Yui didn't like having her friend keeping things from her. Sometimes Hannah would have no issues telling her something only she would know but other times, the other girl would be too quiet and kept to her own thoughts.  
  
And no one was as closed off and silent as Hannah when she decided to not talk to anyone. The other girl would become the epitome of quiet and detached. There would be nothing to give away her thoughts or how she was truly feeling.  
  
 _Well... I haven't been telling her about my nightmares. I should tell her. It's happened ever since we've been here_.  
  
The first time Yui had ignored it, thinking it was connected to her drug-induced sleep. But now she knew otherwise.  
  
They were going to _die_ there. At the hands of the vampires or whatever was hidden deeply in that mansion. She was uneasy about the atmosphere in the place. There was something hidden there waiting for her and she had sensed it from the first time they had lain eyes on that forsaken place they were now forced to call 'home'.  
  
 _I'll tell her when it's time to get up._  
  
Their new sleeping schedule was draining her. They'd arrive back home just before dawn and the few hours of sunlight they could stay awake for were wasted with them locked inside. She could see the light and feel its warmth of it on her skin filtered through the long windows of their room, but she couldn't breathe in the morning air like she would have liked.  
  
Her eyes were slightly open now and she could see that the sun was still up. They were probably an hour or so away from their usual time to wake up and get ready again. Thin lines of light were apparent from the corners of the closed curtains she was facing while lying on her side on the bed.  
  
Their bed felt cold and it was so quiet again in the mansion it was unsettling. This, she assumed, was quickly becoming commonplace. She suspected all the vampires were currently asleep themselves.  
  
 _I can't sleep anymore. It's always freezing inside. The vampires might be used to it but it's too uncomfortable to sleep this way. And then that nightmare came to me again..._  
  
Planning to get up early, she moved gently on the bed not wanting to rouse Hannah from her own sleep. The other girl was usually a very slight sleeper but with their new sleeping schedule she was sleeping more heavily out of exhaustion in getting her body accustomed to different hours.  
  
 _This entire house feels like it sucks out your energy. There's something sad and angry about it.,_ shaking her head at herself for thinking that a house could actually have _emotions_ attached, Yui swung her legs over the side of the bed.  
  
Suddenly gasping loudly, she clutched at her chest at a painful throbbing that took her by surprise. It was a piercing squeeze that was like a knife right over her heart that stilled her quickly and had her inhaling sharply. Squeezing a hand over her chest as if she could soothe the startling pulse of pain, she panted softy in shock, still sitting on the side of the bed.  
  
 _What was that...?,_ the pain had ebbed yet she couldn't help but think there was something off about the stillness in the air. Shouldn't she hear something in the darkness of that room? What was it that she was missing...?  
  
"Hannah!" that was all she could say as she suddenly ran out of the bed to quickly flip on the light switch of their room. She finally knew _what_ sound was missing. The soft breathing of her friend. The absence of her body heat next to her had plunged the already cold room into freezing temperatures.  
  
Her eyes widened in disbelief when she looked about the now lit room. She hated to see that her suspicions were right.  
  
Hannah's side of the bed was empty.  
  
*****  
  
 _Some people never listen even if it's for their own good._ , Reiji thought to himself while hearing the soft, nearly imperceptible, footsteps of one of the girls walking about upstairs on her own.  
  
Sitting in his study on the first floor, he wasn't all that concerned about the foolish venture the Ito girl was getting herself into. He had already done a good enough deed in warning her about her conduct inside their home and how her choices could affect her. It was all a matter of cause and effect. Even a teenaged human girl would have enough wisdom to understand something of such simplicity yet this one didn't have that much common sense.   
  
Looking at the antique clock on the wall beside the door of his study, he noted that it was only a little past four. Most of his brothers were still asleep. It was normally that way around that time. Four in the growing evening for vampires was the same equivalent of four in the morning for humans.  
  
Except for him of course. Once in awhile he'd awaken earlier than expected and would go over necessary things for the household. He was the only that actually concerned himself with such matters considering that he was one of the elder brothers that wanted to avoid the most minor of inconveniences. If he saw something would cause some sort of trouble for them, he'd halt it's process so things would continue on smoothly.  
  
As it should be. Things should have a certain order for them to function. If things didn't work as they should it was imperfect and therefore useless and he didn't care for useless things.  
  
 _He's awake too._.., feeling his lips subconsciously curl in distaste at realizing that an unexpected sibling of his was shuffling his sleep heavy feet about the halls, Reiji couldn't stop his growing annoyance.   
  
Closing his eyes and rubbing his gloved fingers over his lowered eyelids, he let his brief moment of frustration fade on its own. Shuu was awake himself. That was a rare moment in their home. That brother, who was nothing more than a _nuisance_ even in his beloved sleep, had finally decided to be an early riser for once.  
  
But Reiji knew the true reason why that brother of his had decided to awaken at that hour. Though his movements were sluggish on the floor above Reiji, there was obvious _intent_ behind Shuu's silent stalking.  
  
He was hunting that Ito girl down, perhaps planning on catching her unaware to make a quick and all too convenient meal of her. The laziness of his worthless brother could be lethal for any of his unfortunate prey. Due to his nearly eternal state of lethargy Shuu would go for long periods of time without feeding. The vampire barely even changed his clothes for days and skipped classes constantly. With feeding he was unsurprisingly no different.  
  
He was almost an invalid or even an _infant_ in every sense.  
  
 _At least it's at home and not at school again. And it's in his own section of the mansion. It would have been intolerable if he had done this within sight in any other place._  
  
If it wasn't Shuu's infantile disregard for simple things like taking care of himself, it was his own perversion that deeply irked Reiji. The vampire was indifferent about a lot of things but he'd found him far too many times luring a girl to him and groping at her body while slowly taking her blood. The first time Reiji had witnessed his older sibling doing that so carelessly in an empty classroom he had dry retched.

That very occasion was why he didn't bother to stay around waiting for Shuu in the limo after school was over. If that lazy good-for-nothing wasn't at the expected hour waiting for their ride back home, they would simply _leave_ him there. It wouldn't be the first nor last time he's been left at the school and even after countless times of being abandoned there by the limo Shuu hadn't cared enough to complain. He'd just _sleep_ in the empty school just like he desired.   
  
He had told Shuu about how dimwitted it was to bite girls in a place they all frequented like school. Reiji might have been as intentionally _impolite_ telling him so as possible because the likes of Shuu didn't deserve any forms of respect with how he conducted himself nightly. Unsurprisingly Shuu had retorted back something as vulgar as himself.  
  
 _"I didn't know you liked to watch such things..."_ the mere perverse implications in his brother's words that night had Reiji seriously considering the benefits of just obliterating him altogether in his sleep.   
  
Shuu might as well have fornicated with his prey just to get her to give him her neck. It was not only vulgar but an easy way to get a meal. Vampires had a natural allure to them that attracted humans to them. It wasn't that dissimilar from the effect the Dionaea muscipula, also known as the venus flytrap, had on flies except with vampires it enticed humans to approach them and become their prey. 

  
Humans wanted to get close to them subconsciously to feed them. And Shuu in his disgusting ways would seduce a girl into nearly ravishing him herself and willingly offering her neck to his teeth. He would wager Shuu barely even moved at all for his feeding practices. In fact Reiji didn't doubt his brother had even _allowed_ human girls to impale themselves on his erect penis altogether on the floor of some shadowy classroom in the academy. Shuu had just _that_ much disregard for himself and no self-respect to speak of.  
  
The stupid hormonal girls would be too besotted to even speak of the sharp pain on the sides of their necks everytime Shuu enticed them into the darkness to touch them. Reiji shalked up the foul allure his brother had to the weakness of human women altogether at times. He couldn't understand what could possibly possess anyone to defile themselves with someone that didn't care for them or their own selves.   
  
Shuu had always been too pampered. That would be the best way to explain his _perpetual uselessness._ Everything was taxing for that brother. Feeding himself, dressing himself, bathing himself, getting himself off whatever cursed surface he temporarily made his bed was too _bothersome_ for the spoiled little prince. Maybe even breathing was a chore that exhausted him.   
  
_Mother's favorite... Look at the empty worthless shell your son has now become..._  
  
Feeling irritated at recalling how vile that brother of his could be, Reiji rose from his seat. He was always frustrated just thinking of him. Hearing him awake upstairs and ravenously hungry because his extreme laziness had him forgo feeding himself _again_ only reminded Reiji of what a complete waste of oxygen Shuu was.  
  
He debated inwardly if he should go upstairs to stop him from attacking that Ito girl in his hunger. It would definitely irritate his brother to have such an easy meal taken from him although on the other hand Reiji felt sickened to his stomach at what could also happen. Shuu would probably _feed_ right in front of him just to infuriate him with his vulgarity.  
  
He never cared where he fed and how others saw his actions. As long as he got whatever he wanted in his spoiled easy manner, Shuu was capable of doing a number of disgusting things uncaring of who he upset in the process.  
  
 _Especially me. He always finds a way to anger me and he knows exactly how. By_ merely existing _he agitates me._  
  
He didn't want to allow his brother to just get what he wanted again yet at the same time... That Ito girl had broken the rules of the house by entering the very hall Shuu's room was located in. Every brother had their own wing. Vampires were territorial creatures and living in the same house was already taxing enough, so they had their own separate wings they could feel some sort of peace in such a close space.   
  
And that girl had just walked into one of them and lingered for far too long. Shuu had probably sniffed out her fragrant virginal blood outside his room. A virgin's blood was always clean and sweet in scent. Untainted by sinful filth. It was a preferred meal and in this modern age finding a virgin to feed from was nearly unheard of for vampires.   
  
To Shuu, that girl might as well have been like dangling a weak lamb in front of a starved lion.  
  
Reiji could tell that his brother wouldn't be gentle or even enticing in his feeding. He might even kill her and crush her bones under those unseemly oversized clothes she appeared to prefer to wear. Even if Shuu himself had been the one to say they couldn't kill either of the girls, that didn't mean he'd be able to stop himself.  
  
It was... _Karma_. It was ironic that a girl so desperate to keep living could be having her very life consumed by a vampire that didn't care for living at all. A _living corpse_ like Shuu.  
  
She would be a life wasted on his brother. Although human, even _she_ was worth more than the good-for-nothing and that was a lot coming from Reiji that merely tolerated humans to feed.  
  
Sitting back down, Reiji calmed himself, already expecting for the other girl, Yui, to start screaming looking for her silly little _thoughtless_ friend. Those girls were very attached to one another. He had even considered separating them to see how they'd behave without each other's comfort.  
  
It would have been a rather interesting social experiment. Vampires weren't as needy for affection as humans were, or that was what Reiji had noticed throughout his life. They were rather cold-blooded while humans always needed some form of contact, of companionship.  
  
They were like monkeys in a zoo to him. Although vampires and humans did have a lot of similar physical traits, socially speaking they were very different species. Humans were weak, they aged and died, they constantly had offspring and even incurable diseases brought by their own produced filth throughout history. Vampires on the other hand were both solitary yet possessive creatures. They didn't need to be surrounded by their own kind and what was theirs was just _theirs_.   
  
One of his brows arched when he heard a feminine shout quickly muffled on the floor above him. Reiji had already expected that as well as the impeding panic of Yui searching for her 'missing' friend. He didn't rise from his seat at the sounds of struggles on a carpeted floor and the low frustrated murmured male commands.

Finally Shuu was having to put a little _more effort_ with his prey for once. 

Reiji almost smiled. If it hadn't been for her stupid decision he would have perhaps even had _admired_ Hannah Ito for giving that brother a hard time. The sounds were of pure violence and the girl's rage. It made him recall her first night in the mansion and how she'd managed to clobber his brother Subaru so hard with a silver candleholder that the antique was bent without any chance of repair. If she was lucky, right before her imminent death, she could clobber _Shuu_ himself senselessly. 

The Ito girl was screaming for her life behind the palm of a hungry vampire's hand but even then Reiji hadn't yet smelled her fragrant innocent blood being consumed. Shuu might end up having to _kill_ her to lap up her dead cooling blood just to calm her furious struggles.

Then unfortunately he _smelled_ it. The blood. Reiji was almost disappointed at the scent wafting through the ceiling. Her heart was now beating frantically as she unwillingly fed his angered panting brother.

_If she survives she might as well have chosen him._

Disgusted by the turn of events and sounds upstairs, Reiji wondered if he should take a potion for his already impending headache. This whole chain of theatrics this early in the day had soured his mood. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lmfaoooo. I wanted it to be dark but Reiji's raging came out funny for me instead. In the game Shuu did have a habit of seeming to "bait" Reiji into getting angry. Like refusing to stop sleeping on the couch despite being threatened to be burned for it and pulling Yui in the couch with him to kiss on her right in front of an appalled Reiji. Like Shuu just has zero fucks to give.
> 
> *wheeze* I feel bad now cos their povs reflected how they are as brothers. Shuu is so detached that he only thought of Reiji once as an annoyance while Reiji pretty much raged about him during most of his pov.
> 
> PS : and Shuu is indeed a huge pervert. Just saying that for anime watchers that didn't play the games. This guy tried to rip Yui's clothes off to look at her panties in a church he was napping in in the game so he's lazy but he has enough energy to perve when he has the opportunity.
> 
> *more wheeze* Wording sometimes is funny. 🤣😭


	6. Satisfaction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: nonconsensual biting, boob groping, cuddling, violence and past pervy thinking, apathy, beastly instincts, predatory thoughts (he won't always be like this) . This boy is so hungry he doesn't give a shit anymore. 
> 
> Entirely in Shuu's pov since I wanna get more into writing him since I'm used to writing Yui, Hannah and Reiji already tho he'll be more 'calm' in the future.

What had awakened Shuu was her scent rather than the soft noise of her feet walking down the hallway just outside his room. Her steps were so low in sound that they lead him to think that perhaps all she was wearing on her feet were socks so her steps would move nearly inaudibly over the carpeted floor in the hall.  
  
She was moving carefully and not stopping to linger. It was clear that she wasn't planning on staying there for one of her fruitless searches and was perhaps on her way downstairs. With the layout of the mansion, both of the human girls given to them had no choice but to pass through some of the individual wings to get to the first floor.  
  
His wing was the last one she would have to go through before reaching the grand staircase but Shuu had already decided that he wasn't going to let her go any further than that. His brothers may have not even heard her passing in their own halls in their deep daily sleep. She could have easily _gotten away_ undetected especially at that hour yet unfortunately for her, his brothers weren't as _starved_ as he was.  
  
Shuu needed to feed. The physical need was irritating and was making his dreamless sleep needlessly fitful. Even his music couldn't lull him to sleep, no matter how loud he put it and how soft and languid the melody he could barely keep his eyes closed for long. After becoming too aware of the fresh blood in the mansion hours earlier when he normally would have ignored it, he couldn't relax his numbed body anymore.  
  
He could nearly smell their blood just waiting to be consumed through the walls even if the room the girls were assigned to was almost at the center of the mansion. It made his senses too frustratingly _alert_.   
  
His thirst made it impossible to ignore them now. It almost made him _resent_ being what he was. Had he been a human he perhaps would have starved to death and would have wasted away into nothingness but as a vampire pure instinct controlled him.  
  
The thirst was like a master puppeteer and although he was used to it, he still disliked the discomfort he was in when silently rising from his bed. His body felt so cold he couldn't even reign in his shivering and his dry swallowing to soothe his throat only made him more irritated.  
  
He was going to _take_ her. She was only a victim of chance. If she had waited a little longer or had used another path to get downstairs she could have been spared. Many of his past meals have been like her.  
  
Just there and _convenient_. Unlike his brothers, Shuu didn't groom his victims or look for anything in particular to make him interested in feeding regularly from them until eventually draining them empty over time. All his brothers had their own preferences. Reiji went for older women, the kind he would find in some college café, Ayato always pursued ones for their looks, Subaru fed on those foolish enough to approach him first and the list went on. The fact was that each of them had their own _modus operandi_ while Shuu only had this. Even his feedings at school which he was only more slightly careful with were just good luck at having some easily aroused girl wanting some form of skin contact with him.  
  
All he had to do was smile at them and tell them to approach him. Whispering to them to touch wherever they liked... Humans were indeed far too easy to control even in those situations. When in lust they would lose all sense of morals and would even willingly caress someone as inhumanly cold as him with every murmured command he gave them.  
  
And they would offer their necks with warm fresh blood to him while in the throes of their selfish lust. Shuu thought nothing of it even if others thought otherwise. Reiji might judge him harshly for it but for Shuu he got a meal and some release that would leave him contently sleeping in temporary euphoria. He didn't care for the assumed feelings of infatuation from any of these girls. In his mind he only saw them as stupid food.  
  
 _Dinner and a show_ , he would have called it. On occasions he may have recorded their moans to listen to later if he felt bored and wanted to remember the encounter. There was never any bothersome attachments formed. Whatever one-sided feelings these girls may have had was not his concern. They came to him and he just took everything they gave.  
  
With this prey however... Pretense wasn't a requirement. She was already fully aware of what they _all_ were. There would be no unnecessary need to lure her and touch her to get her desiring to debase herself and easily putting her own neck to his awaiting lips.  
  
 _What was her name again...? Hannah was it..._?, the name itself felt strange to him after becoming accustomed to the usual fare of offerings from the church. A girl with a biblical name and a Japanese last name. He could tell she barely had any Asian blood. Perhaps one of her parents was of Japanese descent...  
  
These things shouldn't matter to him but he was even more aware of her presence than ever before. Shuu was instinctively _curious_ about his prey, studying just the sounds of her soft breaths leaving her lips and how steady her pulse that seemed to thunder in his ears in his irritating hunger. Her clean untouched scent was making the insides of his nose positively itch and his tongue felt dry and numbed with the growing thirst for her blood.  
  
It didn't take him long to get to the hall to follow her. She was quiet for a human but he could be even more silent and imperceptible. Opening his bedroom door without bothering to close it and stepping outside even while trembling with blood lust was all done quietly. She wasn't even as guarded as before even though she was careful in keeping herself unheard.  
  
Not silent enough for him. Least of all in the state he was in. He wanted to be filled and allowed to rest again too strongly. Once he was fed he'd only continue his routine of sleeping and ignoring the world. This was _all_ he desperately wanted. 

She was almost to the top of the stairs. He simply couldn't allow her to get that far from him. It was finally time to make his move.  
  
Grabbing her from behind, he had already expected her to scream and struggle in his arms. He quickly covered her gaping mouth and nose and pulled her with him towards one of the empty rooms in the hall.  
  
Her body was so petite and light that even in his weakened state carrying her violently wiggling form was far too easy for him. Muffled curses were locked in her throat and he could feel her tongue frantically move over the palm of his hand as she tried to force out words. The wetness of her warm saliva left him feeling a familiar tightening heat between his legs though he didn't care to linger on that familiar sensation.   
  
Shuu would make quick work of her and would return to his sleep or so he thought when he reached the wooden door frame of the room he was taking her too.  
  
That's exactly when she decided to be truly _difficult_. Taking advantage of the doorframe to have something to press her sock-covered feet on, the girl lifted her legs and kicked off the wood of the frame just at the right time.  
  
One of his shoulders hit the wood hard, making his heavy-lidded eyes widen at the sudden burst of pain. The pain made him even more uncomfortably alert. If he hadn't been holding her tightly, she would have easily escaped him.  
  
This girl couldn't possibly be just another human. He had grabbed bigger prey before and they hadn't been able to take him by surprise in such a manner.  
  
 _I could easily snap her neck._ , angered by how unpredictably difficult she had turned out to be, he tightened his hold over her mouth and nose, cutting off all her oxygen as his other arm wrapped around her waist. Now her struggles became fiercer and he could hear that her swinging feet managed to kick at a nearby table close to the door.  
  
The sound of the crashing table and whatever vase was on top of it shattering had his almost silent heart race with unwanted adrenaline.  
  
This was supposed to be _easy_ work but this prey wasn't going to allow that.  
  
While one of her hands tried desperately to grab at his hand on her face to get some very needed oxygen, her other somehow found its way to his hair and powerfully yanked. The girl had a surprisingly strong grip when pulling at his scalp. He couldn't stop himself from hissing loudly at the pain of it.   
  
_That's it._  
  
"Stop. Moving," his low words were grounded out not bothering to conceal his annoyance.  
  
She wouldn't listen. Seeing that she was being stubborn Shuu did the only thing he could do to stop her fighting.  
  
He brought both of their bodies to the floor. He couldn't help grunting at the force they fell on the ground but with the sudden move the little oxygen his prey had left exited her lungs behind his hand.   
  
She arched helplessly against his chest as she tried to pull her face away from his grip. Her heart was pounding so loudly that Shuu suspected that she was just moments away from losing all consciousness from lack of air.  
  
Turning both of them on their side, he wrapped one of his legs around her wiggling hips to keep her still for once. In all the commotion, the one arm he had around her waist had made her sweater rise up until he could feel the satiny warm skin of her ribcage.  
  
She was wearing no bra underneath her clothes and he noted that while she had curves he hadn't expected, there was also a _firmness_ to her body that perhaps explained her surprise strength. Beneath her clothes there was a very womanly body with the firmness of exercise.  
  
An athletic form.  
  
Regardless of the surprisingly pleasant form she kept hidden under her clothing, he only wanted to _bite_ her as hard as he could as punishment for the pain on the back of his shoulder and all the hated noise she had caused.  
  
"Stay still...," he was struggling to remain calm. Killing her right away would make her blood taste of rot too fast and it wouldn't warm him.  
  
She screamed behind his hand, foolishly suffocating herself even more than before and he removed some of his fingers away from her face to allow her to breathe through her nose. It was but a small kindness to get her to stop trying to claw at his hand. Her whole body violently shook as she took in deep breaths greedily.  
  
But she was finally still perhaps understanding the situation now. She might have fought but she knew he wasn't letting her go. Even with her heartbeat coming in a rush that he could feel it vibrating against his own chest, the girl had resigned herself to getting her blood taken.  
  
The scent of salt perfumed the air. She must have had tears come to her eyes when unable to breathe. Shuu wasn't sympathetic in his hunger. He had allowed her to breathe again and that was all he was going to give her. She was nothing more than food that happened to be available when he was pushed to his limits.   
  
Pressed so tightly against her back he moved his head, already knowing which vein to pierce. His lips easily found the thick vein rushing with blood on the side of her neck.  
  
The loudness of her scream was thankfully still muffled by his hand when he deeply sunk in his fangs. He didn't think he'd be able to control himself anymore if she had made more noise.  
  
He could hear his own lustful panting in the room once her blood gushed into his mouth. Her own speeding pulse was working against her and making him almost choke on the mouthfuls of her blood without him even needing to suck it out.  
  
Swallowing quickly his arm around her waist lessened it's powerful grip. The girl was scared but submissively letting her blood be taken from her. There no longer was a point in using his strength to restrain her.  
  
 _This blood..._  
  
It wasn't bad blood but it wasn't what he had been used to. It had the sweetness and purity of any virginal girl but there was something that left an almost searing burn whenever he swallowed it. The effect it had made him even break out in a sweat which wasn't a normal reaction.  
  
His previous coldness was now too hot but it wasn't a discomforting hotness. With the coldness of the room, it was actually pleasant as it heated his insides and made the soreness in the back of his throat gradually disappear.  
  
Without meaning to his now warm hand holding her down began to stroke the warm skin around her ribs before cupping one of her breasts. She shivered at feeling it but was probably too frightened to move away at having his fangs in so deeply in her neck.  
  
Her obvious fear had her go completely stiff in his arms when he touched her. It was even mildly humorous. His caresses were only a subconscious kind of touch that he hadn't put much of his mind into when comfortable and seeking warmth.

And her satiny skin was so _warm_. Her body heat felt much stronger with skin contact and he was greedily taking it.   
  
He could easily fall asleep this way with this way. Even if the floor was hard underneath their bodies, once he was sated it would like the most comfortable place to be for the time being.  
  
Her racing heart was slowly calming itself. Shuu could already sense that she must have fallen unconscious because of her fear and blood loss. Nonetheless, she was still shockingly alive. Ordinarily human women would have passed out earlier than she had and wouldn't have managed to hurt him by taking him by surprise.  
  
This prey had a stronger constitution than he would have guessed.  
  
Feeling her gush of blood gradually lessen in his mouth as her heartbeat steadied made Shuu forget his earlier anger. His sense of emptiness was returning again and he quickly accepted it. With the burst of energy and anger he had been feeling during their struggle fading along with his hunger he was finally able to think clearly again.

His previously violent thoughts were becoming as sluggish as he felt. 

That was about all the fight she had in her for the night. She would probably wake up furious however and he wasn't eager to hear her raging about what he had just done.  
  
She seemed like the kind of woman that would hold a grudge that would rival even Reiji's. It made him even consider just killing her to avoid all the unnecessary racket she would create after finally being awake and remembering him hunting her down for a meal.  
  
 _This woman is going to be nothing but trouble..._  
  
Having forgotten of her fingers that had gripped his hair, he heard her hand fall limply to the floor out in front of her. The girl was unconscious just as he had suspected. Her silence was the perfect way to end his difficult meal.  
  
Pulling his lips away from her neck he took in a deep breath, inhaling in her scent. That fight with her had exhausted him after being so long without physical activity. His body was too used to barely doing minimal movements and now with being well-fed, his tiredness returned twice as powerful as before.  
  
Despite the heavy sensation of sleep that had been evading him for so many torturous hours, he still couldn't stop himself from licking the dried streaks of blood on the side of her neck. They were languid licks that had him tracing the streaked blood with the tip of his tongue. He could taste the sweetness of her warm flesh and it only made him feel more drowsy.  
  
Her neck had the indentations of all his teeth instead of just his fangs. He had bitten hard to get her to stay immobile in his grasp and he didn't doubt that she would get a painful discoloration from his bite. The bite would take longer to fade away than any normal vampire bite.  
  
It somehow amused him to have hurt her that way. She would have a hard time covering the mark.   
  
His hand that had been over her face slowly fell away from her mouth. Her saliva coated his palm and he was slightly annoyed at how rapidly it cooled on his skin. If he had enough energy to care he would have wiped it off on the carpet beneath them or on the girl herself but he didn't.  
  
Shuu slowly blinked in his growing tiredness as he settled himself more comfortably behind her and allowed his body to relax without completely letting go of her warmth. He had unknowingly been tense during the entire ordeal with the girl and now that it was all over, he felt a satisfaction that was almost the same as getting some physical release. It was as if a pressure he hadn't known he had built had finally let go, leaving him taking in deep cleansing breaths.  
  
Uncaring for the time being about the girl's future screeching about his actions, Shuu pulled her tighter to his chest and felt his own heartbeat echoing at the same rhythm as hers. It was the slow beat of tiredness taking over.  
  
She would keep him warm until she would awaken again.  
  
He finally closed his eyes and rested his head on the floor, vaguely smelling the scent of whatever shampoo she used. Her hair had been loosened in their struggling and the silkiness of the black locks was pinned under one of his cheeks. It would have bothered him but for now he was too tired to care to remove it from under him.   
  
His drowsy mind idly searched for the proper name of the scent. Water lilies... The girl actually had such a delicate fragrance up close. A surprisingly feminine scent that went against her violent behavior.  
  
Thinking those thoughts to himself, Shuu finally gave himself away to his preferred dreamless sleep. With this girl's warmth, if he were truly lucky, he wouldn't ever wake up again. He could easily stay there for an eternity forgetting that the world outside of that room even existed again including the girl herself. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whooooo, lmao. I might have gone overboard cos I hadn't realized his pov actually got this long. If ppl are wondering, nah he wasn't going to have sex with her. I had a headcanon of him subconsciously petting while feeding and before going to sleep so Hannah was only submitted to his usual feeding cuddling and stroking routine in this chapter. It might seem sexual but it's more like something normal for him. 
> 
> I have old side stories writing Hannah with him in wattpad and this is something that was already pretty much decided for them early on before this fic idea even came up. He would bite her and would touch her inappropriately but wouldn't go further than that (at least Hannah didn't allow it in those short stories cos she would high tail outta there once he's fed. I think he did try to pull her back when she tried to escape him tho. I need to reread my own shit 😂)
> 
> Was planning to add Yui's pov about finding her gone and dealing with intense bossy (sexy asf) Reiji but then the chapter would have become 8,000 plus words and that's way too much fixing for me. 😭
> 
> Please leave a kudos and/or review if you enjoyed!
> 
> Don't worry, he'll "change" slowly... But he'll still have his douche moments. He needs to grow up some himself.


	7. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: mentions of past violence, groping, child dismemberment, feeling sick asf, Strict Mom Reiji, and temper tantrum throwing vampires.
> 
> Reiji is little by little starting to lose his shit. He's having a hard time restraining himself. (just let him whip somebody)

Pure unadulterated panic was all Yui was feeling when she quickly left their room. She hadn't thought twice of rushing out into the hall in her nightgown, even bare footed, to search for her friend in all the places she suspected she might have gone to.

They had been informed of the separate wings in the large house by Laito in his "grand tour". That had been one of the few helpful things he had done to attempt to get on their good side although he hadn't managed to convince Reiji to let him take them to the gardens.

Yui knew which places to avoid now but some of the halls would be unavoidable altogether to get to the first floor. Halls that some of the brothers were unfortunately residing in.

 _I really hope none of them have grabbed her!,_ being alone in those halls in the far too silent house could prove lethal. Hannah must have had her reasons or perhaps had spotted something in their previous exploration that she kept to herself to investigate alone. It was so _like_ her to have gone off by herself on something that was dangerous. During all the years of knowing her that was one of the things that always had annoyed Yui about Hannah the most.

She never wanted to count on _anyone_.

Yui was trying hard to find a reason for her friend's actions to calm her panic at seeing she was missing. Hannah wasn't the kind of person that did things blindly. She always had some sort of backup plan if something else failed.

_I knew she was keeping something from me and was quiet on it. I really wish she stopped doing that! This is not the time for her to be keeping secrets from me!_

She was not only frustrated with her friend but frustrated with herself for not realizing sooner that Hannah was going to make her next move without counting on her. The other girl had a nasty habit of being so self-sacrificing that it became destructive for her if Yui didn't snap her out of it. Even in school she had taken in whatever punishment the nuns gave out for Yui.

Yui knew it was to 'protect' her but the thought of what Hannah was capable of doing to protect her only upset her more. She could end losing her life someday in the process and Yui wouldn't be able to live with herself if that ever happened.

Running through the halls, she began to carelessly slam doors open to look quickly inside each room. All the noise she was making would surely rouse the slumbering vampires since it was still too early for them to awaken. She would have cared if she wasn't so scared for her friend. At the moment she had tossed all need for self-preservation away just to find Hannah.

With every opened door, she was met with a disappointingly empty and dusty unused room. The house had too many of them. Sitting rooms, small bedrooms, even a vacant nursery that had probably not been open in decades if not longer was all that she had found throughout the mansion. The age of the place was abundantly clear with the smell of dust and mold in every room she looked into and the sight of cobwebs in the corners.

She wasn't the most athletic person. Her body wasn't built from regular exercise like her friend's was but that didn't stop her from running as fast as she could. The rush of energy was a product of her fear and it fueled her search.

Rounding a corner, she was going to head down a flight of stairs that lead to what she suspected was the small antehall to the doors of the vast gardens outside. There were at least three ways to get downstairs as far as she knew. The grand staircase which split into two separate wings and then this one.

Perhaps Hannah had tried to see if the chains had been removed from those glass doors to the gardens.

That had been her plan until she felt like she slammed into a wall. Yelping upon hitting the sudden hard surface just before reaching the top of those stairs she was easily knocked on the floor. Cool air brushed her legs uncomfortably as the skirting of her gown pooled around her hips.

She panted in surprise before looking up and felt her blood freeze in her veins at seeing that what she had run into wasn't an unexpected wall but _someone_.

Reiji didn't look amused at her running around the house. If anything he looked downright annoyed. His features were cool and nearly unreadable but his eyes showed hints of frustration when looking down at her while crossing his arms.

His slight glare made her feel like a small child that was caught doing something she shouldn't. Then she saw his cold slightly disgusted stare slowly move over her legs, suddenly reminding Yui that her gown was far too high up her thighs. His pointed disproving stare lingered just at the cloth over her hips as if it offended him. 

Yui quickly covered her legs, her face now beet red at how the silent condescending vampire had stared at her. She had been unknowingly showing him her underwear and she had taken too long to cover herself. His judgment of her had her feeling worse than when she had to be alone in her old school's office with one of the rigid nuns. The way those nuns would give her pinched patronizing looks as if she were a speck of nothing was really no different than Reiji's expression.

No. She was wrong. This was many times worse than those sadistic nuns. Looking back on the days of her old school, those nuns now seemed laughable to her. Reiji was a much more intimidating and real threat than they could ever be.

Gulping at the unexpected sight of the icy vampire, she couldn't even find the words to explain why she had been so noisy. Reiji had robbed her of all ability to speak with that glacial stare alone.

"Care to explain to me why you are running like a mad woman about the house and making such a forsaken racket?" his calmly asked question contrasted heavily with her very visible alarm. 

"Hannah...," gulping in a deep breath, her body shook as he patiently waited for her to finish. "Hannah is missing! I can't find her!"

Exhausted, she was angry at herself because of how weak her own voice sounded to her. She could even see her sight of Reiji's frigid aristocratic features getting blurry with her tears of frustration towards herself and her ever present trepidation everytime she was around these vampires. 

"Oh, your friend...," her eyes widened expectantly since he obviously knew more than she did on the matter. "Your friend is currently resting in one of the room's in Shuu's wing."

 _Wait! What?! How did she end up in one of the rooms over there?!,_ she had been running deeper into the mansion not once thinking Hannah would be heading to the grand staircase itself.

Her confusion must have shown on her face because Reiji then sighed at her expression, pinching the bridge of his nose as if to compose himself.

"The extremely foolish Ito-san walked into a very hungry vampire's territory and he took her. Rest assured, he hasn't killed her yet, " he didn't sound like he was assuring her all. Yui was starting to think that Reiji was _disappointed_ her friend was still alive. 

"She... She was bitten?!" her shock made her voice shrill and Reiji closed his eyes at the annoying pitch of her tone.

"Yes. She was. Now get off the floor and return to your room. The ground isn't a seat. I will not have another person in this mansion behaving like that _worthless bum_ ," his commanding words had a snappish quality to them though his expression had barely changed at all.

 _Worthless bum? Does he mean Shuu-san...?,_ she barely knew the brothers but even then she had been able to sense a strong animosity between those two vampires. There wasn't even a need for them to have words. The tension was there for anyone to see and feel whenever they both happened to be in the same room. Yui was surprised they weren't tearing at each other's throats on the daily basis. Their hostility was a silent poisonous one that warned that if they did have any confrontations it would surely be explosive.

Forcing herself to slowly stand and smoothing her nightgown with shaky hands, she was apprehensive of being alone with Reiji. This was the first time she had actually been by herself in front of any of the vampires. The only comfort she had was that he wasn't looking at her like she was a piece of meat dangling from a hook like the triplets did. His scrutiny of her was more like him seeing some unsightly bug than a tasty meal.

Everything about the vampire in front of her showed perfect self-control. His shoulders were rigid and his eyes were unblinking but direct. Like the every night before, his uniform was pristine and free of all wrinkles and stray lint.

She still couldn't stop her nervousness around him despite his obvious self-control. Even if there were no signs immediate danger that he'd attack her. None that she could see at least. He had become as perfectly unreadable as Hannah was. Yui was really starting to resent how others were good at hiding what they were truly feeling unlike her. She was perhaps the only one in the mansion that was like an open book.

"What room is she in?"

Something briefly flickered in his eyes. Yui got the feeling that he was growing more annoyed with her persistence with every passing second.

"I already told you. She is fine but currently indisposed. It is bad enough that two people in this house will miss classes tonight but I will not tolerate _three_ being absent."

_Does he seriously expect me to just go on like nothing has happened?! He just told me Hannah was bitten by his brother and I'm supposed to just be alright with that?!_

Pressing her lips into a thin line, she felt herself glaring at him and he looked back at her emotionlessly as if her anger directed at him didn't bother him in the slightest. She should have suspected as much. The man was a vampire and having a small human girl giving him a fierce glare must have even been laughable to him though there were no signs of amusement in his face.

"If you don't want to cause your friend any further worries you'll go about your business as it is expected of you."

 _This man... Is so very cold_., that was the only way she could describe Reiji's disregard towards her understandable worry. There was no pity or remorse. He lacked in all basic emotions and didn't bother to pretend he felt nothing. All he would show her was pure ice or irritation with her for trying to argue back against his orders. 

He was just _cold_.

"Reiji-san... She's like a sister to me. I just need to see that's she's alright...," making herself say those words, apprehension filled her at how his sharp cool look changed to one of unconcealed frustration. Though mostly expressionless, Reiji's eyes showed a intensity that could be briefly readable if one stared long enough. She felt as if he were _disgusted_ by what she was saying. Or perhaps even found her display of worry distasteful. 

"Please forgive me, Yui-san, but I don't believe that I gave you an option to refuse," her heart pounded in disbelief as he continued. He asked for forgiveness but he didn't show he cared if she gave him any. It was all a part of forced politeness. "Your friend was dumbly lucky that the good-for-nothing is too lazy to even kill her. He's perhaps sleeping like the dead now as we speak after all the commotion with Ito-san. I doubt that even all the noise you were making just now has even stirred him."

 _Shuu-san was the one that truly bit her...,_ Reiji had already mentioned that Hannah was in that brother's side of the house but even then she had suspected that it could have been anyone else. Shuu didn't appear like the kind of vampire to actively pursue a person. He looked more like he lacked interest in everything he did and his surroundings altogether.

Gulping loudly, she tried again despite Reiji's evident increasing annoyance with her, "But-"

"Go to your room," his voice was deep and the command in it was hard to ignore. "Or do you wish to have Ito-san awaken to find you _punished_ for your refusal to obey simple instructions?"

There it was. He was directly threatening her with something awful if she kept arguing. She didn't know exactly what kind of 'punishment' he'd give her but it was certain that he wouldn't hesitate to submit her to it.

"Although I do not care at all for putting your fears at rest, your friend is safe for now. The _bum's_ interest in her was only for him to feed. Her only issues will perhaps be some anemia and worrying about _you_ if you're to continue insisting in being _disobedient_ , Yui-san," the way he stressed certain words further emphasized him losing his patience. 

_He's warning me to stop._

Going against her better judgment, she carefully thought on what to say next. She was playing with fire with this vampire but he was truly the only one around that she felt she could ask anything of. The other brothers wouldn't have wasted time even explaining things to her at all.

"Will she really be alright...?" she didn't want to show she doubted Reiji though she still did. She barely knew him enough to be able to guess exactly what kind of person or vampire he was.

"That is all up to her. She made her choice and she must live with the consequences-"

_Made her choice...? What does he even mean by choice?! She wasn't even allowed a say in it in the first place. I know she wouldn't just have willingly given her neck out to a single one of them!_

"She didn't choose him..." Reiji sighed loudly at her saying that slowly.

"I would beg to differ but for now I intensely _dislike_ having to repeat myself, Yui-san. Go to your room and prepare for dinner. I will not tolerate any tardiness because of your stubbornness. Whether she lives or dies isn't anyone's concern but hers. She's _his_ problem now," the words were cruelly said. He had an aura of threat that rivaled the other brothers as he spoke them now. Yui could tell that this was all he was going to allow her to press on regarding the subject or he might truly attack her just to get her to obey him.

Doing as she was told felt like the biggest betrayal not just towards Hannah but for Yui herself. Just turning her back on him to walk away had been a difficult task. Even though he had been cruel in telling her about what had transpired, Yui knew that he was telling the truth. So far Reiji didn't seem like the type of vampire that would lie to make others feel better. He was direct even if whatever he said was painful. His coldness was the one of someone that was accustomed to not care if feelings were hurt with the truth. 

Other people would have lied to prevent any kind of problematic behavior. The truth was already bad enough as it was. Her friend was alone with a vampire somewhere in the mansion. Even if Shuu appeared to be harmless in his constant state of lethargy, that didn't change what he was.

A vampire that was willing to actually attack a girl to get blood from her. Hannah must have been so frightened during it all and Yui felt that regret she had desperately tried to ignore before come back to her. It was an unaddressed guilt about their current situation.

 _She's here because of me...,_ that was something that repeated constantly in the back of her mind every night since being there. 

Hannah hadn't demanded any apology from Yui for practically being the reason why she was there being held prisoner. Hannah might hold grudges forever towards strangers yet with Yui she never demanded anything. It sometimes made her wish Hannah would snap and tell her to her face what exactly hurt her too much to speak of.

She was blunt with everyone else but with Yui she was evasive. Yui felt like there was an invisible wall between them during times like these. The other girl was too stubborn and wouldn't let her protective shields down. She hid everything that would make her vulnerable even from her.

Yui made herself go through the usual motions to get ready for the night. She hated every second of it. Her movements were slower. She probably took longer than she normally did because of her unwillingness to leave the mansion. Shuu's wing was closer to the front of the mansion and she was tempted to go search there herself before going down for dinner but something prevented her from doing so.

Reiji's words had stayed with her. She would not only cause trouble for herself but for Hannah if she kept insisting. She didn't know what could happen to her friend if she went running to that particular wing of the house slamming doors open again. She might end up inadvertently waking up the vampire who had spared her life. The uncertainty of that was what made her push away the idea almost as quickly as it had come to mind.

Hannah was only alive because the vampire who had assaulted her for blood hadn't had the energy nor interest to finish her off. Yui had guessed that much from what Reiji had said.

_"Your friend was dumbly lucky that the good-for-nothing is too lazy to even kill her."_

Could a human life really mean so little to them?

Yui knew her and Hannah were just prey... _Food_. But how could the Sakamakis casually talk about taking someone's life like that? Yui couldn't comprehend how anyone could be that cold-blooded. Their lives might as well mean nothing to the vampires at all if killing was something so simple to gloss over so heartlessly. Did they ever feel any remorse doing the things they did? Even once?

She doubted that someday she'll understand their thinking. Yes, they were vampires but could the gap between vampires and humans really be that big? A coldly logical separation of predator from their prey? 

Their new reality chilled Yui. Hannah still being alive was a small solace but even that wasn't something certain. She didn't know what would happen to her friend if the vampire that had taken her suddenly decided to kill her on a whim. Shuu was just as unreadable as Reiji and now he's proven himself to be unpredictable too.

That whole time they had thought he was the lesser threat in the mansion and as it turned out he was the first one to actually attack one of them.

_How can I possibly go back to school like this...?_

Dinner, like aways, was a dreary mandatory activity. It was almost like every night except for this time Yui was alone with them. There was no reassuring human warmth sitting at her side. Just a cold empty seat accompanied by the rhythmic sounds of the usual cutlery from the vampires like every other night. It was almost as if nothing had changed at all. Their calmness bothered her. It was as if no violence in their house had taken place. Like no human girl had nearly lost her life inside the mansion. 

The near offensive _normalcy_ was like a slap in her face. Everything went on as it were all commonplace. 

Well almost... Ever since she had come downstairs there had been an obvious angry tension around Ayato. That vampire brother in particular was making unnecessary noise while eating his dinner and seemed to be glaring at nothing at all.

She wasn't curious about his anger in the slightest but she was nervous being next to him when he kept angrily cutting his food, making his knife screech in a high-pitch over the porcelain of his plate. He _wanted_ people to know he was angered. Whatever that had irritated him was being taken out on his meal. Even his chewing was loud and furious in sound.

Yui was seriously considering excusing herself altogether from the table just to get away from him. With Hannah already being attacked she knew she could easily become the next one. His grip on his dinner knife was strong enough to make his knuckles paler than they usually were. She was so nervous being alone with at least five of them in the dining room that now she kept imagining Ayato stabbing her with the knife he held on to so tightly. Her imagination was running so wildly that she could even see the rest of them staring carelessly on as she bled to death on the dinner table.

They would probably lick her spilled blood blanketing the table mantle... 

"Ayato, I know you have better table manners than that...," Reiji flatly cut into her violent paranoid thoughts when he uttered those words without once glancing in Ayato's direction. Yui guessed that being awake earlier than the rest must have some sort of effect on him.

Either that or he was having his frustration mounting up as the night passed.

_Reiji-san must be mad in his own way about Shuu-san..._

"He's just upset that our bet was ruined," hearing Laito, Yui looked his way in confusion to see that the triplet looked amused as if he had some inner joke he wasn't willing to completely share.

Ayato on the other hand was very vocal about it.

"Out of _all_ of us in this mansion, it had to be _Shuu_ of all people to bite one of them first!"

"You two made a bet...?" Kanato's question was too softly asked and that for some reason made Yui apprehensive. The way he spoke made it seem like he was preparing for something... She still remembered his explosive anger over his teddy bear being accidentally knocked to the floor in their school. 

Now Laito was too happy to explain, "Uh-huh! Ayato-kun and I had made a bet about who would bite any of the two new bitch-chans first and Shuu-san beat us to it. He wasn't even a part of it but-"

"He's a selfish asshole! Leave it to _him_ to go so long without feeding that he suddenly remembers he's a vampire and grabs _anyone_ out in front of him! Ore-sama saw _both_ of them first!" Yui flinched at hearing something slam on the table after Ayato's spit out words. He must have hit the flat of his palm on the table in his frustration.

_They had been planning to attack us themselves before we could even choose...?_

That revelation only confirmed her fears that came with her nightmares. If Laito or Ayato had grabbed either one of them alone, Yui knew they wouldn't have survived the night and even if they did... She didn't want to think of what could have happened to them in the hands of those two triplets. 

She barely knew Ayato but over the past few days he had proven to be of competitive nature. He probably would have been more violent and cruel in his pursuit of them. That much about Ayato had become obvious over the part few days. But she hadn't realized just how angry he was about _losing_ in anything. 

Looking at Reiji apprehensively she half-expected him to put some order in the dining room but all she could see was that he was having a difficult time reigning his own patience in. His eyes were closed as the conversation continued. Even his hands were folded in front of him as he let it all occur as if he were waiting it out. 

"You _made_ a bet without including me...?" Kanato questioned in a deceptively small voice. She didn't know why but that tone was eerie to her. 

Yui was already slowly pushing her chair back, planning to leave as soon as possible. The tension had risen to uncomfortable levels in the dining room and she didn't know which of the vampires was going to truly lose control first. Ayato, Kanato or Reiji himself that had remained silent during the whole back and forth among the triplets.

"Ah, Kanato-kun it wasn't intentional. You were in your doll room when we came up with it-," Laito's falsely cheerful yet apologetic words were suddenly interrupted by a loud crash. 

"YOU TWO MADE A BET AND NEVER THOUGHT TO INCLUDE ME?!" the sheer volume of Kanato's voice stunned Yui enough into standing abruptly. She had been trying to leave undetected but he had scared her with his sudden outburst.

"YOU ALWAYS LEAVE ME OUT!"

Ayato only made things worse, "Now you're just being a crybaby again -"

" _SHUT UP!"_ hearing another crash of what Yui now saw was a plate Kanato had grabbed from the table to violently throw in the floor, she finally had decided she had enough. The boy was so angry he was already bursting into tears during his screams. His sobs after his yelling were heartwrenching but Yui felt that it was all part of an act.

"Fake crying will get you nowhere," Ayato's muttered words only made the smallish boy cry louder.

"And then everyone says _I'm_ the loud one," Subaru's finally spoke for the first time in the night.

"You're _both_ loud," obviously having enough of everything Reiji opened his eyes and looked directly at her, making her stand still under his stare. 

"Please sit back down and finish your dinner, Yui-san. We've already had enough disruptions."

Her legs felt heavy as she unwillingly took her seat again. If it wasn't the suddenly loud vampires it was Reiji's form of intimidating quiet command over her that had her nervously obeying. Hearing Kanato's loud crying only made the recent tantrum appear more surreal because the rest of the vampires had already dismissed it. Yui began to wonder if it all had been just a part of her imagination but as she glanced around the room she still saw the broken porcelain on the floor and could still hear his cries that were slowly dying down to sniffling.

They were obviously ignoring Kanato as his rage passed.

_This family... There's something clearly wrong with them. Are all vampires truly like this...?_

*****

_His name had been Nathaniel. A young Hannah had remembered his face from the picture frames in what her parents had deemed as the 'forbidden room'._

_There had been so many pictures of young Nathaniel all over the walls of the usually locked small boy's bedroom. All the pictures had been in various different frames. Big ones, small ones, some of plastic, wood or metal frames. Each one of the images showed a happily smiling three year old boy with slightly curling brown hair and stormy gray eyes that were darker than her own._

_She had been too young at the time to understand who Nathaniel was. Her mother would sometimes lock herself away in that room and she'd hear her sobbing brokenly inside until her father had to come get her and gently coax her out. Nathaniel h_ _ad been as much a mystery for Hannah as the forbidden room itself._

_The room was usually locked like some shameful secret and the rare times it was open Hannah would go quickly inside to look at the boy that made her mother so sad. She didn't know whether she should weep for him too or hate him for making her mom cry._

_Being so naturally curious back then, she had recognized some of her own features on his forever smiling face in those pictures during her brief visits. They both had the same nose and almond shaped eyes._

_And he had her mother's hair while Hannah had her father's straight black hair that kept slipping out of the tight pigtails her mother insisted she'd wear._

_Eventually she did find out who Nathaniel was... He had been her older brother. She had never met him because he had been missing since before she was born. Her parents barely talked about him at all and it bothered her. She had wanted to know everything about him once she knew he was her brother until her father explained to her privately that speaking of Nathaniel would upset her mother._

_Her questions about her older brother seemed like they'd go on forever unanswered. All she was left with of Nathaniel was hearing her mother crying in his room that was more like a shrine and the rare times Hannah could actually go inside to gaze at his multitude of pictures covering every inch of said shrine room's walls._

_The full knowledge of what had truly happened to her older brother finally came to her after overhearing her parents arguing one night._

_"You have a daughter... How do you think she'd feel if she finds out that you're willing to just let yourself die for our son...? She needs you. I need you."_

_"It still hurts everyday! Thinking about what those monsters must have done to him! He must have suffered so much before they..." her cries were loud as Hannah shivered in her bed in her own room down the hall from theirs. The eerie quality of it unnerved her and being such an empathic child back then she felt her own eyes fill with tears at hearing her mother make such sounds._

_Her mother was always happy. Happy like the Nathaniel she was always secretly crying for was in his pictures._

_She hated hearing her mother crying._

_"They tortured him and pulled him apart like he was just some doll! I keep worrying about someday Hannah being taken from us by Them too! What horrors will they put her through?! Nathaniel was just a baby and they still did that-!"_

_"Hannah is safe. Everyone is keeping her safe and we won't let them touch her... Ever," her father's slightly trembling voice still had so much certainty that Hannah heard her mother's low whimpering only stop briefly as if she were starting to believe them herself._

_"Nathaniel was safe too... Until those disgusting creatures took him, Taisei! Don't forget what they did to him! They sent him back in pieces inside some box like discarded garbage! If something happens to her too because of this job-"_

_Hannah shivered under her blankets. Being young didn't mean she didn't fully understand what her mother was saying. Her older brother hadn't just been taken, he had been killed gruesomely and her mother had to live with the knowledge that he had suffered._

_"We do this job so others won't go through what we went through. We_ save _people's lives with what we do, Ava!"_

_"This job killed our son!"_

_"Lower your voice or Hannah will wake up. She's not ready to hear about this...," her father's hushed tones did calm her mother's yelling but Hannah could still hear some low words mingling with her soft sobbing._

_"My boy... My sweet baby boy... How they must have hurt you... "_

_Her mother's cries from that night had been something that had haunted Hannah for years._

*****

Hannah hated when those memories returned to her. That was something she had long buried from an old life that still hurt her like fresh wounds. She thought that the dreams had stopped over the years but yet she had just had one.

It was like a curse she was never truly free of. Remembering these things felt like she was being followed by the past only to be tortured for some unknown offense she may have committed in another life. 

Waking up from it now made it even worse. Hannah woke to a reality filled with pain and dizziness. Half of her body was numb from laying on a carpet over a hardwood floor and one side of her neck felt like it was on fire. Even swallowing to moisten the back of her dry throat was agonizing.

Recalling what had happened the night before only made the pounding headache she already had worsen. Blood was rapidly rushing to her head in an uncomfortable pulse and the way she was laying on the floor without any pillow to hold her head only had both her head and neck ache more.

Feeling too heavy to move, Hannah inhaled deeply and blinked in the dim darkness of the unknown room she was in. Little by little her mind was processing what her body was feeling because she was almost paralyzed on the floor.

Being up in the mountains made the stars clearer in the Sakamaki mansion. Only the shine of said stars through the open curtains of the room gave her enough light to note she was in some bedroom. With as many windows as the room had she could make out the shadowy outlines of a canopied bed and perhaps a dresser...

Had she been feeling better she would have found the sight of so many stars twinkling outside beautiful but for now she felt like absolute shit. The way the furniture was arranged also told her that she wasn't in her and Yui's room.

_I need to get up from here..._

Hannah winced when she felt something heavy holding her hair to the floor as she gingerly tried to move forward.

A male groan was heard too closely behind her head and her tired sore eyes now shot wide open.

Now it all came back to her with too much detail. The memory of the fight she had last night had been slow in coming to her because of her headache. Waking up disoriented was rapidly becoming a hated routine in that cursed place.

She had been going downstairs to investigate an antique phone she had seen in an open room two days prior. It had only been to check if there was an actual dial tone and the only way she could do it was while the vampires were asleep. She hadn't been able to get to it during Laito's tour or during any other night. Taking advantage of having woken up early she had tried to check quickly to see if this phone at least worked.

That had been her original plan until one of the bastards had captured her. Other things also became too obvious to her as her mind quickly remembered everything. The vampire in question was still with her. He was rather comfortable softly breathing behind her, his larger body spooning hers. His earlier groan in protest about her moving previously was forgotten as he easily returned to sleep.

Her body trembled at realizing one of his large hands was also annoyingly nestled inside her sweater. The offensive hand was limply lying there too closely to one of her breasts. He obviously hadn't once thought of removing it.

Angry about how unfairly her plans had ended, Hannah jerked her head forward even if her scalp stung in the process. She didn't know who it was that bit her since he had grabbed her from behind but she wanted him to get the fuck off her hair and his hand away from her skin.

He wasn't as cold as she had been expecting him to be but the fact that he had _touched_ her like he was allowed to and that his body was too closely pressed to her back was infuriating. It was too damned intimate for her liking.

Hannah wasn't into snuggling with strangers that had nearly killed her and she was letting that be known.

She heard a satisfying hard thud followed by a grunt once her now unbelievably knotted hair was free. Whoever the bloodsucking leech was had gotten a good hit on his head with the floor underneath them. She knew she didn't have enough energy to fight him again, making this but a tiny victory for her before she could go somewhere else safely.

"Violent woman..." his whispered remark was slurred with sleep. She vaguely recognized that voice but it sounded almost strained as if he were fighting off a yawn that would interrupt him in speaking.

She stayed still again. He wasn't doing anything to grab her but he still had that hand inside her sweater.

_He almost bit a chunk from my neck..._

The wound on her neck throbbed the more alert she became. Unfortunately with her becoming more fully aware of her surroundings, even more pain came. She was even beginning to feel nauseated.

"Will you let me go...?" the croaking quality of her own voice had her inwardly cringing. She didn't know blood loss would have such a bad effect on the human body. She felt like the entirety of her body was a giant bruise and just _thinking_ was too painful.

His hand inside her sweater moved away. She couldn't suppress her shiver at the tickling sensation of the slow dragging of his fingers on her skin as he unhurriedly removed his hand. The way his fingertips skimmed lightly over her chest and stomach before the unwanted hand was finally gone made her believe it was all done deliberately. 

Hearing him move some more behind her, she was just waiting for him to try some more bullshit. But he didn't. All she could hear was his soft breathing away from her as if he had only changed positions to lay on his back.

 _He's letting me go...?,_ she didn't trust these bastards in the slightest. Least of all the one who had attacked her and had even groped her in the process of it all. He hadn't gone further but just recalling how his hand had stroked her skin gently and _squeezed_ her made her pale with embarrassment. Had she been in better condition she probably would have raged at him for doing it but for now she was too exhausted.

Strangely she even wanted to return to sleep even though that was all she had been doing for that day.

_Getting hurt by one of these assholes is becoming fucking normal now._

She wanted to get as far away from him as quickly as physically possible but every movement she made was at a snail's pace. Her body was too sore and the moment she managed to get in the position to crawl away from him, a powerful sudden wave of nausea hit her that had her curling up in a ball on the ground. 

The rotten acidic taste of vomit filled her mouth and Hannah was mortified that she could very well end up puking all over the floor. Not only was she too slow in escaping her attacker, she was feeling sicker than she had ever been in her life.

_So this is what it's like afterwards...?_

Some people might think the idea of being bitten by some vampire as a romantic or even a sensual experience if they had read too many stupid tawdry paperback romances. But the real deal actually sucked. Her entire body might as well have been beaten by a battering ram.

The only thing saving her at the moment was that her attacker had lost all interest in her and hadn't moved even once when she had begun to painstakingly inch away from his side.

Inhaling in deeply through her nose to control her upset stomach, Hannah finally slowly got away from him until she felt there was a safe distance between them. Crawling on the floor wasn't her idea of a graceful escape but it was the only thing she could do for the time being. She still had some of the aftertaste of the vomit in her mouth that she had just barely managed to control. The urge to spew her guts all over the floor was still present yet she forced it down with her deep even breathing.

Vomiting would have only made her waste more time in his presence and that was something she didn't have the luxury to do.

Merely guessing at the rest of the layout of the room she eventually, after a tense eternity, found the closed bedroom door. She nearly sagged in relief when she found it was actually unlocked. Turning the doorknob quietly, she let in some very needed light enter the room from the hallway. Nighttime had already fallen so the lights of the hallways and possibly the grand staircase were on inside the mansion.

Those were always on at night while during the day everything was dim.

It also meant that everyone could have already left for school while she was stuck _alone_ with this asshole. Hannah didn't even know what hour it was. Only that the mansion was completely quiet and that merely imagining that she was completely alone with a vampire inside that huge house left her violently trembling. She didn't think she could handle him taking blood from her again while she was in that state.

 _Is he following me...?,_ her attacker had been so silent the night before that she couldn't stop feeling dread at the possibility that he was probably hunting her again inside that darkened room. Perhaps he had been crawling behind her for all she knew and she had been too concentrated on leaving that she hadn't even sensed his silent stalking again.

Turning to look over her shoulder she could see his dimly lit form still lying on the floor. He was flat on his back like she had earlier guessed. Her brows weakly moved up in confusion upon realizing he probably hadn't even moved at all.

And that he was actually awake. One of his eyes was open in a slightly annoyed squint while he stared back at her.

_It's... That guy._

Surprise left her temporarily immobile. It was the eldest of the house. Shuu. He looked as rumpled as he always was. His hair was slightly messier than normal and his features were relaxed as if he were still asleep. However one of his eyes had been open to observe her sleepily as she had struggled to move away. The fact that one of those drowsy blue eyes had probably followed her every movement in the dark was making her heart pound loudly which only made her head throb more at the rapid blood flow.

His gaze though disinterested had the hints of the watchfulness of someone expecting something to happen. He might seem lazy but he was alert enough to deal with her if she attempted anything. _That_ much was certain. She didn't know exactly what he was waiting for but she quickly found out that she didn't like being watched while being completely unaware like that.

 _Is he going to come at me...?_ , as if to answer her question that single eye of his gradually closed before he slowly turned on his side to avoid the light of the hall shining down on him. He was probably more annoyed by the brightness of the light waking him up rather than her.

Still feeling uneasy around him Hannah took that as a cue that she was being dismissed. Whatever he had been waiting for had already passed.

It was like he _knew_ she wasn't a threat because of how obviously weak she was at first glance.

She didn't know what to even make of this vampire. Hours earlier he had been acting like he wanted to crush her bones into dust but now he was behaving like not seeing her again left him unbothered.

Just the act alone of him turning his back towards her showed that he didn't see her as any danger towards him or that perhaps he just didn't care.

_You can never truly know a person. The last person I would have expected was the Lazy Ass._

Using only his indifference as a confirmation that she was safe enough to leave, Hannah gritted her teeth as she continued to make her slow getaway from the moldy old room. She intentionally left the door of the room open for him as punishment for attacking her. It was a final, and very weak, act of pettiness to make the slothful vampire uncomfortably sleep under the bright unwanted light he had just turned his back on. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LOL. I used some personal experience during the dinner scene. Some ppl (mostly those without siblings or large families) don't know how disruptive it can be to have a younger sibling. I remember once visiting a cousin's house and we had pizza (two slices for each of us) and only one slice was left with no one to claim it cos we'd all had our slices... My cousin ate the last slice to just finish things and holyshit. 
> 
> His little brother shrieked so loud our eardrums were about to be shattered and he even started threatening to commit suicide by running out into the street to get run over by a car so his older brother would get in trouble for killing him. My cousin told me to ignore him cos he did it for attention and it turned out to be true when my little cousin threw himself in the floor screaming his head off in the kitchen. It was a fucked up experience. 
> 
> My sibling household had similar shit going on tho I wasn't bratty. I was just petty and vengeful asf with my older bro and my younger sis was an angel. We all have our different experiences. 😂😂
> 
> Shout out to Celi for always calling Shuu "Lazy Ass". I used her nickname for him as Hannah's new name for the dude. 
> 
> Please leave a kudos and/or review if you liked this update!
> 
> PS: since only four or five ppl are actively reading this I might move my updates to once every two weeks on Fridays cos I also have stories in other fandoms that have too many ppl begging me to update for months (years, cos the one I plan to update hasn't been updated since 2016 😭😭😭)so I might work on those once I get used to switching fandoms for it. Switching fandoms back and forth is actually harder than I thought. Gonna go manga re-read for it... And listen to r 18 for smut inspiration and tension. 😩


	8. Comeuppance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mentions : Yui's panties, Reiji's haterade (poor guy has a headache that even a potion couldn't fix), of past death, sexual suppression, vague mentions of past sexual activities, sibling hate and wanting to just burn a bro. 
> 
> Entirely in Reiji's pov.

Reiji's headache was slow in abating throughout the night. It still pounded mercilessly behind his temples yet despite the annoyance he went to school as if nothing was amiss. This was all just a part of being the _only_ elder brother that cared for some semblance of order in their household, not that any of his siblings ever appreciated his efforts.

Night school, as always, was quiet. The students were nicely more subdued during the night hours, which Reiji assumed would have been quite different if it had been during the day. The day brought a lot of unwelcomed noise, smells and too many humans and that would have only aggravated the intensity of the piercing pain inside his head.

He hated to admit to it, but not having _him_ around did help Reiji concentrate more in his classes. Shuu was usually a constant source of irritation with how Reiji would find him in any random corner dozing as if he were some homeless mongrel. Every night they went to school it wasn't uncommon to find the eldest of the Sakamakis skipping class and sometimes, in his careless mocking manner, sleeping in plain sight of the professors themselves. Those humans were forever perplexed with his disregard even while inside the classroom and unfortunately Reiji was the one that had to hear their woeful complaints about the useless sloth as if he were Shuu's keeper.

Reiji was always the _responsible_ one. It was something he had to live with and in fact, he sometimes even took _pride_ in being regarded as the only one of the two of them to have the maturity for such a role.

However on this particular night, the responsibility of being the only one that cared enough was wearing him thin. With two girls in the house, he had felt forced to take necessary precautions to keep the girls in check in an easy manner but as it turned out, there were flaws in his tactic.

He had mistakenly believed that keeping the girls together would make them easier for him to watch until they chose. They were both too understandably frightened to be alone in a house with vampires but by some twist of fate _both_ of the girls hadn't allowed that to stop them from having their own willful natures come to the surface.

They were both uncouth and untrained. If it wasn't Hannah with her false politeness hiding an inner harpy with a mouth more vile than any hoodlum, it was Yui with her clumsiness and... _Impropriety_ in garments when running like a nutter through the halls of their home during their sleeping hours.

He had already had a mounting headache before deciding to stop Yui's fruitless search for Hannah hours earlier due to Shuu's incompetence in keeping himself at least sustainably fed. It shouldn't have been the least surprising to him that his loathed elder sibling let himself go that far in his constant need to avoid any form of physical activity. The vampire was so set in his state of uselessness and indifference even towards his own body's basic needs that he allowed himself to starve until he lost control of his senses.

No differently than some animal.

Having had Yui before him, lying on the floor like some awkward child had only served as yet another irritant. Things weren't and _shouldn't_ be that way in his eyes. The girl was as unrefined as a lump of blackened coal with nothing of value inside. Her face was far too expressive, which could easily be used against her by his kind, and then her _garments_...

Although there was nothing in her sleeping wear that showed any loose morals, he still saw her as inappropriately attired. Her girlish white gown with lace trimmings had risen over her pale milky thighs to give him the unwanted sight of her pale pink underwear. He had unwillingly concentrated on the sight so long in shocked disgust at her lack of modesty that he had even noticed the flirty yet childish little red bow at the top of her undergarments. She had also taken _too long_ in showing some sense of shame at exposing herself so intimately in front of a vampire that wasn't even her lover.

Perhaps he was looking at things too harshly because of his previous annoyance or perhaps he saw that the girls given to them weren't as _properly disciplined_ as he would have hoped. There had been girls, _so many human girls_ , that had walked into their home only to be quickly ensnared by them in the past. Some were there as 'gifts' while other were there by chance because they wanted to explore what they thought was a mere 'haunted mansion' in the sleepy little town they all resided in.

Not a single one of them had survived. There were so many various ways these unfortunate girls had their mortal lives snuffed out. Some gruesomely and some downright foolishly which only further proved just how weak humans were.

One had died by just accidentally walking into a bear trap in the woods when trying to escape. Her pitiful cries had lasted for days until she had died of starvation on a hot summer day. The foul stench of her had been unbearable but Reiji, like always, was the one left to clean up the rotting bloated lump of flesh she had become.

Other ways was by drowning due to leg cramps by being forced to swim in a near frozen lake. Laito's form of 'punishments' really did a number on mortal girls. Out of all of their brothers, he was perhaps the one with the most dead girls attributed to him other than Kanato himself.

Kanato's possessiveness was unrestrained and childlike as if he were some toddler with a favorite toy or sweet. If a girl so much as gave him the attention he craved, he would latch on like some kind of leech and grew jealous of even the breeze blowing through said girl's locks of hair. He would view anything as an act of unfaithfulness and in a possessive fit of rage would torture and even consume parts of the girls until he eventually sewed them back together into some semblance of life covered in pallid wax.

At least _that_ brother cleaned after himself.

So many different ways to die could be found within their mansion alone. Sometimes they didn't even need to lift a finger to kill them. Getting lost inside the mansion or being locked within the maze of a sewer system and dungeon underneath their home would also do the trick for them.

Reiji suspected even a couple of skeletons were to be found deeply inside their home. The walls underground were so thick that even the sweetly nauseating scent of decay could somehow be lessened even for their own noses.

All girls had been different. Some were pretty enough to keep some of his siblings interested in keeping her alive for some weeks while others had been homely in appearance that they were quickly discarded of in hopes they'd get a new orphan sent in by the traitorous church.

Thinking of the church now as he sat in the school's library, Reiji couldn't stop himself from theorizing about their two newest girls and about _why_ they had specific instructions for said girls to not be killed like the rest. He didn't even know if it was the church itself that gave such a rule. Shuu's laziness also seemed to frustratingly affect his vocal cords when it came to explaining things further than a couple of short vague sentences.

To Reiji they didn't have anything particularly special. They were human and as virginal as all the girls they've had sent to them throughout the years. Or perhaps he was missing something. Whatever that something was happened to be something eyes couldn't plainly see at first glance.

These questions only broke his concentration on his assignment out in the desk in front of him. It was only basic calculus. While to others it might seem like a hellish sort of schoolwork, to him it somewhat killed the tedium of the otherwise frustrating night and it's silently milling students.

Soon enough he would have pages filled with his answers in the always changing calculations. It eased him and made him push aside his thoughts only for a few moments.

And by only a few moments, he meant barely any time at all. As a vampire their view of time went far quicker than humans. For humans years might seem like a lot in their weak short-lived perception of time but with vampires, living so long made those years seem like nothing.

Even a couple of minutes looked more like the fraction of a second to him.

"Um, Reiji-san...?" and then there was a _culprit_ that had decided to rudely interrupt what little peace he had found in doing his schoolwork during free period.

Calmly setting his pencil down beside his worksheet, he gave Yui a particularly expressionless stare that had her paling. He was admirably concealing his irritation at her approaching him so silently he hadn't even sensed her standing in front of his chosen library desk at all.

Normally he would have known if a human was watching him. His senses couldn't possibly be so dulled by his headache that a mere slip of a mortal like _Yui Komori_ could appear before him like some specter.

"Did you want something, Yui-san?" it was an asinine thing to ask but nonetheless manners demanded he'd still ask the obvious.

"I... I know you have some potions that could help with wounds...?" the girl spoke so meekly that he felt his frustration return almost full force.

"Sit down and speak more clearly," his command hid his mental scrutiny of her behavior.

 _But at least she obeys_., he noted when she sat down in front of him.

She seemed almost demure with how she sat upon the hard wooden seat and folded her hands upon her lap. If he didn't know any better, Reiji would say the girl did indeed possess _some_ ladylike qualities somewhere deep down.

"Now repeat your question," ignoring his previous moment of nearly admiring the untrained girl before him, he didn't want his time wasted with trying to decipher whatever it was she wanted from him.

"The first night, when Hannah got hurt, you gave her something for the wound... I wanted to know if you could give me some of what you gave her."

Frowning slightly, Reiji made himself _truly_ look at the blond girl for the first time.

She didn't appear wounded in the slightest.

A bit of a smallish slender girl with naturally pale skin, Yui Komori wasn't what Reiji would call a refined elegant beauty. She had large rose colored eyes that gave her a stronger presence of innocence and pale blonde hair that looked platinum even under the comfortable dim lighting of the school's library.

The girl grew more nervous under his silently observant gaze. He studied her like a new species, trying to find _exactly_ what made her so different from all the former girls sacrificed to their family.

Her uniform was surprisingly well kept. He would have expected something out of place in it considering how she had acted hours earlier in the halls of his home.

Reiji remembered the task of having to measure both her and the Hannah girl in their sleep to get them their proper uniforms. He had thought nothing of the act, finding going through their luggage to look for their clothing sizes as a little too invasive although Ayato had no issues looking for a suspected phone in one of their suitcases.

He honestly would have found her _ruining_ her school uniform to be bothersome after going through the forced measuring process of their limp bodies.

 _Girl would look perfectly proper if she knew how to pull her hair from under her blouse._ , there it _was_ damningly. A _flaw_. A couple of her pale strands of hair were pinned under her blouse's collar. Reiji, being so naturally fastidious about such things, felt his fingertips positively _itch_ with the urge to fix it.

His fixated stare on that minor detail had her nervously raising her hand to the spot as if to protect it from his sight. Perhaps she thought that he was intensely studying the side of her neck to feed but he, _unlike Shuu_ , kept his feeding habits carefully.

Reiji's eyes finally met hers after the tense moment. The girl was too sickeningly obvious in her relief to see he was no longer staring at her neck.

"You don't look wounded," finally speaking once more he only gave her a simple factual statement that should have dismissed the subject.

Widening her eyes, Yui wasn't going to give up on what she was seeking, "It isn't for me, Reiji-san. Hannah must be in very bad shape by now after what Shuu-san...," her words faded as she quickly looked down at her folded hands upon her lap.

Reiji must have shown something on his face that discomforted her the instant she mentioned those two _eyesores_ left behind in the mansion.

"I believe I told you that your friend made her choice," he pushed up his glasses with gloved fingertips out of a long-time habit. "She should consider the natural human process of regenerating her lost blood as a suitable _punishment_ -"

"But she could die! I know that Shuu-san said you weren't allowed to kill us but letting us die-"

"Lower your voice this instant!" he hissed appalled at how she had dared to raise her voice in the library of all places. She again had that expression he had found almost amusing at the mansion. A laughable attempt to glare at him. She looked more like an angry kitten than some furious teenaged girl to him.

Yui pressed her lips into a thin line with his order. The girl was clearly angry with his response to her request. Her small shoulders were stiff and her eyes were sharp but she wisely kept her mouth shut.

Although not altogether smart, she wasn't an entirely dumb girl.

"Now if you're done wasting my time with such pointless requests, please go on about your business and leave me to mine," if he gave in too easily to the girl she would only assume he would always be there to assist her in whatever foolish scrape either her or her disrespectful friend got into.

He wasn't at all in the mood to be chivalrous although he knew that if Hannah had any _visible_ damage, he would feel he had no other choice but to conceal the wound from prying human eyes. This was going to become yet _another_ issue that added on to the growing mountain of future headaches to come with these two girls.

Wounds he could take care of... _If_ he so wished. But taking away the effects of large quantities of blood loss? If it were that simple, so many of their victims of rather exceptional blood wouldn't have died from being sucked dry so quickly. It wasn't cruelty in his part in telling the girl that her friend would have to do things naturally.

It was just the truth.

 _She's still here...,_ even when ignoring her to return back to his work, the undeniably rude girl hadn't risen from her seat. He couldn't _believe_ he had seen some potential in her even briefly.

She had remained sitting there stiffly, staring at him as if waiting for him to give her some words of something as idiotic as _hope_.

It was all too tempting to say some biting words to send her quickly on her way but he chose instead to continue on with his school assignment as if she weren't there.

After what seemed like minutes had passed, the girl finally stood up with a murmured, "Sorry for wasting your time, Reiji-san."

He didn't acknowledge her softly uttered apology at finally being free of her. 

Thankfully, the rest of the night after that brief exchange with Yui, went smoothly except for Subaru skipping three of his classes to go feed in the downtown area close to the academy. It wasn't the first time that brother just abandoned the school to drain any unfortunate human that happened to bump into him in some darkened sidewalk.

Soon, Reiji predicted, there would be talk in the town of some bloodless corpse found in a ditch or left discarded on a park bench. Subaru wasn't ever keen on cleaning up after himself when in the town to feed. He just took what he needed and left the remains of his meal to be found, uncaring if humans got suspicious about discovering a body strangely empty of all blood.

They were lucky humans in these parts weren't as superstitious as in the olden days of their early childhood. Back in _those_ times they would have been chased and cornered by an angry human mob hell-bent on staking and decapitating them.

Reiji had seen it happen once before long ago. Indiscretions from his brothers could very well someday make them leave this small _godless_ town but for the time being the humans around them were very much like dimwitted cattle that were unaware that they were potential food.

They were blinded in a sense to vampires existing among them. Humans were indeed such ignorant gullible creatures. Too trusting or too weak minded to see themselves as prey. It perhaps could be _arrogance_ that made them believe they were the true top of the food chain when they were in fact beneath vampires and many other demons they ignored in plain view.

His headache had finally vanished by the time school was over. A small relief for him when sitting inside the limo with Laito and Ayato's chattiness and that now _lone_ blonde girl who avoided being drawn into conversation with either one of them.

Shuu would have been livid had he been in the limo with them with so much talk. He probably would have muttered his usual "shut up" or "be quiet" to the two talkative triplets. Without Shuu around, they couldn't seem to be able control their mouths around what they had deemed as their new prey.

Reiji just ignored it all. With that infernal pain inside his head gone, he had entered into a composed form of bliss that made him handle the customary loudness of his younger siblings with ease.

"Oi, chinchinashi! Come back here!" once they arrived at the mansion, Yui all but ran out of the limo as if scalded. Ayato was displeased that after pressing inappropriately on the girl throughout their ride back home that she would dare escape him before the limo even came to a full stop. Reiji already suspected she must be running through their home again looking for her hapless friend as soon as she clumsily burst through the mansion's front doors.

"Bitch-chan runs fast, nfu!" Laito's words only sent Ayato into an annoyed rant about having to hunt the girl down.

 _How tactless...,_ his brothers didn't see any need to hide their intentions at all since the girl knew from day one what they were. They were vulgarly blatant in telling her that they wanted her blood among other unsavory lewd things that Reiji didn't care much to dwell on. It was really no wonder she had fled like the _prey_ she was as soon as she was given a chance.

The perversions of his siblings was something he should have been used to but he still found it distasteful himself because they didn't care to keep their intimate activities in privacy. They were all teenaged boys even if they were already older than the average human. Their aging was slowed thanks to their vampire genetics but among their own kind they were still seen as children with their own hormones and annoyingly intense emotions.

That however, didn't mean they _should_ be out of control in their desires. Reiji prided himself in not succumbing often to the intensity his siblings boorishly displayed towards those they were attracted to.

Being in control of such annoyances brought by their slow growth that could take decades and even centuries had become too easy for him. Even if his brothers teased him about his repression, Reiji had other ways of calming himself that didn't require him sullying his own body. He may have given into _rutting_ in the past out of curiosity about the activity but the lack of control over himself hadn't sat well with him.

The intensity of the feeling had made him behave like a greedy animal. He could still recall being spurred on by the feminine moans and him gripping a fistful of hair in his passion the couple of times he had partaken in such a physical activity. His past lovers had ended up bruised and spent while he was...

He later had _despised_ how his body had been ruled by the pleasure of dirty coupling. The activity had been noisy and too intimate. Being inside that warmth and reaching completion had felt like he had given a _part_ of his essence to someone unworthy.

The stickiness of the affair also made him swear almost completely off it. There had been sweat and bodily secretions involved that he had found vulgar when his senses had calmed after ejaculating into some nameless girl that had been too eager for his attentions.

Of course he still had the urge to grab a particularly attractive human woman and defiling himself. He wasn't entirely made of ice, but he wanted to be in _control_ of everything including his own reactions during the act. 

He didn't like things that were out of his careful control. Things should always work as they should and that included _him_. It was something he was so freakishly focused on that a lot of his own desires would be locked away safely from all to see.

His festering anger was yet another thing he bottled up for that carefully constructed composure. 

Going about his routine in the mansion, Reiji was in no hurry to check upon the potential property damage caused by Shuu and his chaotic prey. With his headache gone, his thoughts were sharper and too clear that he knew that if he went upstairs to survey the room the attack had culminated in, his mind would only be dominated by his anger at the mess.

He knew his limitations especially when it came to _him_. Even after so many hours away in school, Reiji, much to his displeasure, _sensed_ that Shuu was still sleeping within the room without any intentions of leaving unless the early morning light became an annoyance.

There were the usual noises around the mansion. It felt like an almost _normal_ night in their household despite two new mortal additions to it. The sounds of Subaru returning in a particularly foul mood as he always did after a meal and slamming his coffin open loudly. Kanato's low murmurings in his room as he conversed with Teddy. And Laito seemed to be on the phone speaking with some chosen prey he was conditioning to him.

All these small things made the mansion into their _home_ at least for their own kind. Soon around nine or ten in the morning, the noises would cease as him and all his brothers would go to rest for the day until yet another night came.

A night in which those two girls would have to _choose_.

Having heightened senses could be both a blessing and a curse since it didn't only help vampires be aware of their prey and even predict their movements in a hunt, they also made them _hear_ each other. Even at that moment he could hear the low whispers of the two human girls and could smell Yui's innocent scent perfuming the interior of the house. 

And he could even hear Shuu breathing in his sleep. 

_I heard a crash yesterday evening when he had attacked that girl...,_ he was truly putting off going to _that_ room in the house. Many times in the past he had even strongly considered emptying Shuu's wing of all valuables because that brother didn't care for their deceased mother's efforts many years before.

Their mother Beatrix had left her delicate elegance in some parts of the mansion. While the triplet's mother, Cordelia, had gaudy tastes in furnishings with dark or loud colors, Beatrix had a natural affinity for things that were understated yet drew attention. Not even the castle in his youth held such things as the mansion. Only a few places their mother had touched with her feminity had remained during the years.

Places with pale and dark contrasting furnishings that accentuated delicate _expensive_ decorations that could easily break.

And a lot of her lingering presence was especially felt in _Shuu's_ wing. How it _irked_ Reiji that their mother had left Shuu with so much that he cared so little for. His older brother didn't appreciate the aesthetic attractiveness of the decor of any of the rooms he entered. His own room could have only just a moldy bare mattress on the floor and he'd be content with just that.

The old fury regarding their mother's blatant favoritism was what urged Reiji to go to that particular wing when he had told himself not to. There was still a persistent lingering anger about how she had put her thoughtfulness into someone that was nothing more than an empty shell. Even the sight of Shuu's _face_ infuriated him on the best of days.

Shuu was like a male version of Beatrix sent to haunt Reiji. He had taken strongly after their mother in looks with the wavy golden hair and the blue eyes. Shuu even had the fine cold elegance of her features. Sometimes when looking at his older brother's empty eyes, he felt as if he were looked down upon as _lacking_ by their mother.

Reiji was still haunted by a past that his brother ignored.

Clenching his jaw, he carefully controlled his features when taking the seemingly eternal walk to the second floor. His brother's scent literally permeated the walls of the hall itself once he set foot into the wing proving that Shuu was still in his area of the mansion.

 _Must not let others see_..., this was a rule for Reiji. To not let others know of what he still harbored although he sensed Shuu knew full well the secrets he thought he hid deeply within himself.

The room itself was close to the top of the stairs. Leave it to Shuu to not want to carry his struggling prey somewhere further where he could feast in solitude. It only reminded Reiji that if he had indeed interrupted his meal, Shuu would have continued unbothered by scornful eyes.

_An animal... A wolf and a sloth wrapped in one. What a grotesque creature._

Noting the door was actually open, Reiji forced himself to step just inside the doorframe to see any damages. He didn't like coming to Shuu's side of the house. Not only was their mother's influence stronger there, but his brother's scent blanketed everything there as if _branded_ by him.

Carefully avoiding the sight of his brother's form on the floor, Reiji's dispassionate stare saw that _indeed_ something was destroyed in the previous day's activities.

That Hannah girl must have given a powerful kick in her thrashing to a dainty mahagony table close to the door and had irreparably broken a vase that Reiji vaguely recalled was eighteenth century Venetian glass. The remnants of the vase and its accompanying small table were scattered on the floor close to a far wall of the room.

Sighing, he re-positioned his glasses over his nose in mild annoyance. He had expected it but still didn't like how that girl could _break_ things with too much ease. If she continued on she would destroy the entirety of the house.

"Great... Another disturbance... First that blonde girl crying in here and now you...," only Shuu could ooze such laziness in his voice alone. His voice was slow and smooth with only the tiniest hint of annoyance at Reiji's presence.

"Couldn't you control yourself until you found yourself proper prey?" crossing his arms, Reiji waited already half-expecting no answer from his brother that looked up at him emotionlessly with still remaining signs of sleep upon his face.

How he hated to have Shuu _look_ at him sometimes with those eyes. With him lying on his back on the ground, Shuu took awhile answering him as if he knew Reiji was getting more frustrated with his stare with the passing moments.

Reiji also couldn't help noticing that to his increasing disdain that Shuu had even worn his school uniform during the attack. He could see that he was actually more impossibly unkempt in appearance than before but that his pale cheeks had some hints of color due to being well fed.

Even after feeding well Shuu didn't show any signs of energy.

He was willfully staying on the ground because that was what _he_ wanted. Reiji doubted that even the approaching sunlight that would soon flood the room would make his brother want to leave in his persistent state of sluggishness.

For all Reiji knew Shuu was perhaps using all his possible energy to just open his eyes and do something as effortless as speaking or even _thinking_ of words to say.

"She was just there," such a simple yet infuriatingly short answer so very _typical_ of Shuu. Reiji was absolutely certain the vampire paused so long just because he knew how much it bothered him.

"Next time you wish for an easy meal try to avoid having your _food_ wreck everything she can touch. That was a priceless Venetian vase."

A soft snort came from Shuu. Reiji could no longer stand being in his presence because he could tell that now his elder sibling was going to further antagonize him.

"I never cared for that vase," an almost serene smirk slowly appeared on Shuu's pale lips as Reiji's eyes widened.

_Don't let him win._

Reiji stared at him coldly knowing full well that he was clenching his teeth in an effort to not fall into Shuu's childish game that would turn into a full argument.

A darker part of him was already imagining getting back at his brother. Just the imagery of dousing Shuu in accelerant and setting him ablaze helped calm Reiji in their furious silence. Shuu would be so frightened and more _awake_ than he's ever been when being a part of the flames.

As if reading Reiji's thoughts, Shuu's empty stare hardened.

"If you're done can you leave and close the door... ? That girl left it open...," boldly as ever, Shuu had the audacity to turn his back on him. This was the end to their short conversation. Started and ended by Shuu in his disinterested manner.

Reiji wouldn't close the door although he wanted to _slam_ it shut with such ferocity that his brother would be startled awake and left in a foul mood at the unwanted wakefulness.

It would have _served_ him right. But no, instead Reiji left the door as he had found it. _Open_ so that anyone passing through the hall would see just how pathetic Shuu looked on the ground. He was nothing more than the shell of a vampire that had no actual usefulness in his life.

Leaving the room and stepping back out into the dreaded wing belonging to his brother, Reiji smiled at smelling the Hannah girl's scent on the hall as well. There was mingling rage and sickness in the smell that hovered in the air that she had left behind when leaving his brother. Even in all the hours that had passed, her presence was surprisingly strong for a human.

It had an almost snappish energy to it. This wasn't the presence of some besotted weakened girl.

_This could be useful._

Keeping this in mind, Reiji walked further into the mansion already guessing on how he could _use_ that girl. She was still just a human but even then he could see that even for a short while, the girl could have a _purpose_ in their home until his good-for-nothing brother got fed up with her behavior.

Whether she lived or died was _truly_ up to her as Reiji had repeatedly said after all.

At least she would infuriate Shuu until her time was truly up. His brother would have to struggle through not killing her as they had all been instructed and the girl... Well she'll just pay for the broken valuables in her own way.

It would be like that old overused adage of two birds one stone.

This could turn out into a form of _entertainment_ to just watch his brother fully alert trying to handle the girl himself until she expired like all the rest before her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow that was quite a roller-coaster lmao. I just want to get these characterization chapters to give y'all a better feel of how our main characters feel about each other in the start.
> 
> Since this is a "what if" AU of In The Shadows, I will add some things as "throw backs" to that story. Like for instance the mention of Laito making a bride swim in the lake during winter was mentioned in ITS when he terrorized Hannah by telling her of the deaths of his former brides in my made up "bride room" that is also in that story. It's a room I made up that has all the belongings of former brides in the attic (including their personal files and even documents from the church about said girls) . 
> 
> PS: I also took a lot of artistic license in the mansion's layout cos I like causing conflict cos yes this layout will cause conflict. You'll see what I mean. 
> 
> Anyways on to other shit. Kris, who is the wonderful woman I'm writing this for, had some concerns I'll now put to rest. Hannah's past trauma from chapter 19 of ITS is still a part of her background in this story. And yes, I'll give the end that you want even if it takes an eternity. It'll be a first for me but I like a challenge. ☺️
> 
> Also after I was begged by said wonderful woman I decided to update again despite wanting to wait for two weeks. 
> 
> Yes I love you and have indeed adopted you as my forever sister, lmao. 
> 
> Other thing: I reread my old asf Shuu/Hannah drabbles that I had moved from my tumblr to my wattpad yeaaaaaars ago. 
> 
> https://www.wattpad.com/363915265-random-dialovers-stories-shuu-oc
> 
> https://www.wattpad.com/367338471-random-dialovers-stories-shuu-oc-nsfw
> 
> https://www.wattpad.com/374240046-random-dialovers-stories-shuu-oc-some-knife-play
> 
> They can be fun to write. This shit is like from four years ago, lmao. Just rereading my old dynamics for them tho Shuu might just get more intense than this at times. 
> 
> Please leave a kudos/review if you liked!


	9. New Circumstances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: mentions past dismemberment/gore, fighting, disturbed childhood, creepy doll, forced potion drinking and petty asf Reiji (he's the one in control).

_A side of Hannah that still frightened her came back to her in her dreams. It appeared in an old memory that had resurfaced that had her gritting her teeth in her sleep. Her mind was too weakened from blood loss to fight them now like she had for years..._

Why are they coming back now? Is this because I was bitten by that vampire...? What in the hell did he do to me?! _, Shuu was the one to blame for it. He_ had _to be the reason._

_This time her dreams took her back to around the time Yui had just turned seven. She could recall that time so vividly as if it were happening all over again and she could even feel her body being as small as she was at that time. Even the sensation of the rough cloth of those old hand-me-down dresses the nuns over at the boarding school gave to her that scraped at her skin had surprised her..._

_It had all started out with a broken porcelain doll that had been covered in red paint found on Yui's twin bed in their dorm room. Judging by the chemical smell, the red paint staining it had been nail polish that was meant to mimic blood over the cracked doll's separated limbs._

_The shattered remains had been Yui's doll. A doll that her father Seiji had given to her on her seventh birthday. Yui had been so happy with the doll, showing it off in class as if it were the best thing to ever happen to her while Hannah had cringed at the very sight of it from day one._

_Hannah had always secretly hated that doll._

_It had bouncy golden curls and pretty glass blue eyes that stared emptily at her from a falsely smiling face. It had nearly disgusted Hannah how that doll could have such an animated dimpled smile showing perfectly carved porcelain teeth with such a dead gaze. Something about it's eyes and fake happiness had scared Hannah. The doll's stare was soulless and a deep startling blue that would have been pretty if it weren't for the cold lifelessness to them._

_Despite her hatred of it, she didn't tell Yui how much she had purely despised that doll with its frilly pale blue dress. The way it had_ stared _at her from atop Yui's narrow twin bed and seemed to follow her everywhere she moved with its glass eyes had been giving her nightmares ever since Yui had gotten it. Sometimes she even imagined that thing crawling on top of her in her sleep and paralyzing her on the bed with those demonic eyes._

_But even with all her young hatred for the doll she hadn't been the one to finally destroy its nightmarish existence. Hannah might have developed a problem with her temper and paranoid imagination since being orphaned but she wasn't that cruel, least of all to Yui that had loved that hideous thing so much._

_It had been one of the school bullies by the name of Ayame that had snuck into their shared room during class and had torn the doll apart to paint it as if it were a gruesome murder._

_That other girl had been from a wealthy family that had her schooling paid for in that hellish boarding school and unfortunately due to her family's money she was allowed to get away with everything._

_Including going into their room without permission and destroying Yui's doll._

_Always a sensitive child Yui had stood beside her crying silently at the sight of her broken beloved toy while Hannah had been frozen on the spot upon seeing it. In her mind that was no longer a doll but the disgusting imagined image of a broken child._

_Torn and bloody with his internal organs strung out of his body like yarn and peeking white bone, it was a dismembered_ Nathaniel _she saw on that bed._

_Her friend's cries had faded from Hannah's hearing as she had remained still with her eyes locked on that once so very hated doll. It's empty dead blue eyes that had frightened her so much before were now an ashy gray and had the fine veins of former life in the whites as they stared back at her. They were out of the doll's eyesockets and rolled on Yui's pale lavender comforter and the paint partially covering them was a glossy dark crimson that smelled suspiciously of rust._

_That was when Hannah had her first 'episode' of losing control. She had hunted Ayame down in their school's halls and had been blinded by rage about the doll that she had seen as her own brother for an instant._

_It had taken three nuns to get her off the shrieking and bloodied Ayame once she had caught the girl. Even when pulled away Hannah's legs had kicked widly in the air, still managing to strike the already wounded girl on face before she could even get off the floor safely._

_During the time of the attack Hannah hadn't seen Ayame as the malicious little spoiled girl she was but as one of Them._

_The other girl had become one of those foul murderous monsters her parents had loathed and she had forgotten because her mind couldn't remember exactly what They truly were. In her madness she had seen the other girl as something that needed to be destroyed. Her logic when beating her had simply been that she was ridding the world of an an evil menace._

_That it was her_ duty _to do it._

 _People like her were supposed to_ kill _Them. If she didn't do it, then what purpose would she have in this life?_

_Her parents would be so disappointed in her if she didn't do it. Just what kind of daughter was she to let even one of Them get away?_

_Those were the thoughts going through her head at the time. If she had told anyone of what exactly she had been thinking during her attack they would have thought she was truly insane._

_She had been taken to therapy after that fight. Ayame's parents had wanted her taken out of the school immediately because she was too violent and had put their beloved princess in the hospital but for some odd reason the school had refused to send her away. Regardless of threatening to sue, Ayame's parents couldn't get rid of the 'feral' child that Hannah had proven herself to be._

_Someone unknown to her had paid off the potential lawsuit and for the doctors sent to her constantly in failed attempts to 'fix' her or get her to open up about the truth behind her violent behavior. Even years later she had never found out exactly who was so insistent she'd remain in that school. It was something that should have mattered but she never had questioned._

_Post traumatic stress disorder, trauma trigger, internalized anger and even psychosis and autism were some of the labels thrown at her back in those days by those stupid doctors who thought they knew her secrets by asking her equally stupid questions and 'reading' her stoic front._

_They didn't know shit about her and they never would know if she had a say in it._

_Even with the constant questioning from the doctors in trying to 'help' her, Hannah had remained silent on her true reasons. She simply had said that she was very upset because Yui was sad when it wasn't the truth. She would have said_ anything _to finally get them to stop trying to get her to talk about what she hid._

_Keeping strangers away was safe. She shouldn't trust strangers. Her parents had taught her that. Letting strangers in could bring danger to her or anyone close to her. She had learned that the hard way..._

_As the memory faded away as if imagined smoke, Hannah could still see that fucking doll. It was no longer broken. It was just as pristine as it was when Yui had gotten the monstrous thing. And it was on Yui's old bed, staring at her with those evil eyes again._

_Hannah tried to 'kill' it again in her dreams to awaken herself by remembering how it had looked when broken with its porcelain legs and arms crudely pulled away from it's soft body made of cotton and stuffing._

_It didn't work. No matter how much she tried that ugly thing seemed to mock her from on top of that bed with its smile and evil listless stare._

Why are you smiling with that dead look in your eyes? Why are you so fucking fake?! Why are you pretending?! Stop it! 

_She still couldn't ever forget that damned doll's empty stare because of how she had confused it for her brother's eyes from her fading memories of his pictures. Just that fact alone made the thing too painfully memorable for her._

_This could be why she couldn't 'kill' it by taking control of her own dream. The spirit of her brother could be_ controlling _it. Was he trying to tell her something?_

_Staring back at the doll, Hannah's mind didn't look away from it's unblinking stare. She was a frozen as she was on the fateful day Ayame had destroyed it. She could see the irises of its eyes shift in the colors of blue and cold, gray and dead. The two colors merged in a way that confused her sleeping mind. It reminded her of something... Of blue eyes that were as beautiful as they were vacant observing her movements just as quietly and still as that doll._

_Frowning in her sleep Hannah tried to force herself to see them as gray. If she couldn't 'kill' it, she could at least change_ that _much. That was how it was supposed to always be in the doll memory._

_The doll's eyes were supposed to remind her of gray and not that lifeless blue._

_It was meant to be_ Nathaniel's _dead eyes and not the empty stare of a vampire._

*****

Opening her eyes, Hannah couldn't stop herself from cursing at what she saw standing at the foot of her bed. Being nearly drained of blood had her weakened enough to be filled with those dreams again and the _thing_ just waiting patiently for her to wake up was the last _thing_ she had wanted to see. 

"Oh for fuck's sakes, not _this_ guy," Reiji's eyes slightly narrowed at her muttered profanity. The vampire in question was standing stiffly at the foot of her bed like some kind of sleep demon from the old horror stories she'd read as a child. 

If she had been feeling better she would have pretended to be polite but for now she felt too much like shit to care to control exactly what she was thinking or even saying. 

"If you're well enough to curse at me, I suppose you're well enough to talk," as cold as always everything about Reiji just shrieked order. Just seeing how neat the guy was was making her head hurt. He looked too put together while she felt like utter crap. It wasn't a good contrasting mix. 

"Not really...," rubbing at the sleep in her eyes she looked away from the frosty vampire still wearing his school uniform to stare up at the ceiling above her. 

At least he had the presence of mind to not turn on the ceiling light this time around. Instead he had just turned on a bedside lamp that gave some dim lighting to the room. Hannah didn't think she could have handled a sudden burst of brightness just waking up. 

_Yui was here...,_ recalling her friend briefly Hannah forgot about the vampire venomously watching her without saying a word. The other girl had panicked at finding Hannah on the floor and had struggled to get her on the bed. Being too weak and tired to complain about being babied she had allowed it without saying a word of protest. 

_And now she's gone..._ , the sudden realization had her abruptly sit up as if jolted with energy. Her body felt heavy at the sudden movement but her eyes were wide awake now at the knowledge that Yui wasn't in the room. 

The vampire before her just stared at her disdainfully. She really was beginning to hate this guy with his cold freakish magenta colored eyes that seemed to gleam with quiet scrutiny behind his glasses. 

"What did you do to Yui?" her voice was thankfully stronger than hours ago when she had painfully crawled away from Shuu. Even with her growing fear, her tone didn't show her worry. It was but a simple question. 

"I didn't do anything to her. Please don't lump me along with the rest of my unrestrained brothers who are unable to comport themselves," even though his words spoke of offense his frigid unchanging features didn't show any anger. 

Annoyed by the fact that he hadn't even said where Yui was, Hannah stared at him frostily already deciding that just cursing at the guy wouldn't get him to tell her Yui's whereabouts. 

"Then where is she?" forcing her politeness, she folded her weakened trembling hands over her blanket covered lap. Yui must have covered her with the bed's blankets after she had lost consciousness again. 

_I don't know how long I can play nice with this guy... I already fucked up by using profanity as soon as I saw him.,_ Hannah noted seeing the how his eyes seemed to judge her. 

"She's downstairs in the kitchen getting something to eat for her moronic half-dead friend," the spite dripped from his response as he adjusted his glasses that hadn't even needed adjusting in the first place. That mere act just showed his indifference on whether Yui lived or died. It was a purely cold-hearted scathing remark. 

_Ouch_. 

"Yui is alone in your house with your perverted brothers around without you to stop them?" the question came out of her mouth before she could even stop herself. If something happened to Yui, no one in the mansion would help her. Of that Hannah was too certain and seeing the vampire that tried to control things to some degree in front of her only stated that Yui was truly on her own outside of their room. 

"I wasn't aware that it was my duty to look after your friend Yui-san. Perhaps if you had been more wise in your skulking in our home, she'd be here safely by your side."

"I wasn't skulking," it took a lot of her patience to keep her voice neutral to appease the vampire. "I was hungry and looking for a snack." 

Sighing, Reiji murmured something under his breath while closing his eyes. Her hearing must be shot to hell because she thought she heard him say "mattaku". 

"Your calm faced lying may fool my brothers but they don't fool me in the slightest, Ito-san," the smile that appeared on his lips that didn't reach his eyes had Hannah's heart skip a beat. The now composed vampire wasn't falling for her games and that fact made Hannah feel like her safety in being unreadable was taken from her. 

"But I didn't come here to reprimand you about your failure to use the phone in my study yesterday evening," Hannah's chest now began to hurt at how he had just exposed her so calmly. He didn't even appear to be upset about what she had been about to do. 

He was secretly amused by it, judging by his icy little fanged smile that did nothing to make his face less intimidating to her. 

"Then why are you here?" she dreaded his answer. Even if in the past she had joked about wanting death, she didn't want her death to be at the hands of a vampire of all creatures. 

"I'm here to inform you that your circumstances have irreversibly changed after your activities yesterday."

"What exactly are you talking about, Reiji-san?" his irritating little smile vanished with her honest question. Hannah truly had no idea what he meant at all. 

"Your choice," though she still didn't fully understand, the seriousness of his tone said plenty to her with just two words. 

She was being _sentenced_. 

"Vampires are possessive creatures by instinct. Even occasionally with food, we may become a little violent at the idea of some _other_ vampire having sampled our meal before us or after we've lain some kind of claim on it," Hannah's stomach turned at the mention of 'food' from the vampire. 

It was _humans_ he was talking about. Not just some slice of cake or a piece of steak but _people_. Him talking so casually about it meant that he didn't care about how she felt about her new unwanted role in life. 

Her and Yui were literally nothing more than _food_ to them. 

_He refers to humans as 'it'. This guy sees us as unfeeling objects.,_ the truth was glaring at her right in the face. She hadn't expected Reiji to be an empathic guy in the slightest but she still was shocked at the cruel bluntness in his words. 

Clenching weakly at the blankets under her hands, Hannah asked calmly, "Where are you going with this?" 

"I'm trying to warn you, Ito-san, that my other brothers will not take too kindly to you being spoiled seconds by Shuu," disbelief had her stiffening her back until it ached. Just remaining sitting up was tiring her but she refused to show further weakness than she already had in front of Reiji. 

"So you're saying I can't choose anymore." 

"Ah, you are indeed smarter than I initially gave you credit for, Ito-san. Indeed. You are now _Shuu's_ food." 

_He's got to be fucking shitting me! I didn't want to choose any of these assholes but the_ last _guy I would pick would be the one that almost killed me!_

Her eyebrows trembled and the vampire smiled again. How she was really starting to hate that fucking smile. She preferred the stiff expression on his face that made him look like he had an iceberg up his ass instead of that sarcastic wintry smile. 

"Unfortunately, being with that brother will require a new set of rules for you, Ito-san."

Hannah stayed silent, taking every bit of her control to stop herself from going off. She couldn't even fight him if she had all her strength return. So far in the mansion she had been physically overwhelmed twice by two of the Sakamaki brothers. 

If she wanted to fight these bastards she would have to be smarter about it instead of jumping in head first without a plan. 

"He's got certain _peculiarities_ that you need to be aware of."

 _Oh, I'm sure he has_ plenty _of those_. 

A hint of bitterness appeared in Reiji's eyes. It was loathing, not towards her but towards the absent vampire he was speaking of. 

"Shuu behaves as nothing more than an invalid. As his food, you may have more freedom to go outside and even move around, however that freedom is limited because of what _he_ may want." 

_I'll be able to go outside...?_

"Limited?" 

"Yes. If you wish to go outside, you cannot be without supervision and Shuu will be the one in charge of making certain you don't go astray. This in turn...," he paused as if listening to something she couldn't hear and Hannah stared at him puzzled. 

Closing his eyes briefly, he continued on as if that momentary lapse hadn't happened and Hannah felt unease about what it meant. 

"This in turn means that you will be somehow in charge of him as well... Shuu doesn't do anything on his own. Bathing, clothing himself and even feeding himself when it is necessary are basic things he often ignores. In order for you to get him to give you freedom you will feel forced to tend to him."

Hannah stared at him plainly while inwardly she was in disbelief once she finally understood what he was telling her. 

_He's making me this guy's babysitter._

"Because of this, you will also have your own misfortunate limitations in school as well," Hannah was certain she was outright glaring at him now despite her trying to maintain her calm outward appearance. 

"If anything happens to Shuu, let's assume, he gets lost, you will become _my_ problem since you simply cannot be allowed to be on your own in both leaving school and returning."

"So I have to make sure he's in school and comes back to the mansion with us?"

"Yes. As I already have stated, you cannot move on your own and if Shuu permits you that much freedom I'll have no choice but to take over for him." 

Reiji was right about the limitations. During the time she'd been in the mansion she had noticed that on the very first night Shuu hadn't even returned to the mansion with them from school. He had in fact stayed in the academy for hours until the limo had been called to pick him up and even then he had gone to sleep in some random corner of the mansion as soon as he had arrived. 

The uptight vampire might as well have _shackled_ her and had tossed away the key. She would be unable to do anything literally carting around a slumbering vampire that didn't even care where he ended up. 

A dark twisted amusement had returned to Reiji's icy eyes. It made his cold features almost seem more alive. He knew _exactly_ what this meant as much as Hannah did. It was just too _perfect_ for him. 

If she wanted to leave the mansion for school, Shuu had to be with her. If she wanted to leave school, he had to come with her. Everywhere she wanted to go had to have that damned vampire present and even if she managed to get rid of him, Reiji would be the one to catch her and who knew just what kind of horrors he had planned for her. 

Her only freedom would be inside the mansion rather than outside of it because in it Shuu wouldn't have to be "chaperoning" her. She doubted he'd care about what she did, but he had proven to be unpredictable. 

He unbelievably gotten the best of her hours earlier. Shuu who was usually so immobile, so slow and disinterested had been the one that went violent just to get her blood. It was almost as if he had been _dead_ until he had attacked her with his hunger. 

_This could end separating me and Yui and even if that lazy ass turns the other eye to give me enough time to escape both him and Reiji... I can't even bring Yui with me..._

The other uncertainty was if that perverted lazy vampire was even _willing_ to let her lead him around at all so she could have some yearned for mobility outside of the mansion. 

_And if he let's me be too free Reiji will just take me from him._.., that was something that kept repeating itself to her like some loaded warning. 

Reiji made it no secret that he hated her. He must know something about what could happen to her if she made any mistakes with Shuu. As she had already guessed before, he was _sentencing_ her to some fate she couldn't even begin to know of. 

_I can't die...,_ closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath after analyzing her new circumstances. She didn't have that much confidence in herself to survive at all because this was all still too new to her and the vampire standing at the foot of her bed could read her too clearly for her to even hide her thoughts. 

Reiji who observed her quietly, spoke almost amicably but she knew it was all a farce. 

"It is most regrettable for you and your friend. Why you may almost be _unable_ to do anything at all with him by your side. He'll be slowing you down until you expire like so many others before you..."

_There were others?!_

Opening her eyes, Hannah was correct about Reiji's fake smooth tone. 

He was fucking smirking again. 

_He's pretty much saying that no matter what I do I will still die._

Calming herself, Hannah breathed evenly to conceal her anger. Anyone that had seen her would have thought she was the very personification of fearlessness even though internally she was frightened by how she had been thrust into being tethered to a vampire. 

"I'll make sure that never happens." 

"That will be quite amusing to see, Ito-san," he didn't look convinced by her facade of cold unbothered confidence. His smile hadn't faded at all. 

_Asshole_... 

"You are lucky your friend Yui-san had expressed some concerns about your physical state. She was quite insistent on it and now after seeing you, I see she was correct. I honestly cannot let anyone in school to see you this way...," Hannah stared at him blankly as he pulled something out of one of his blazer's pocket. 

_Are those more of those nasty vials...?_

She, unknowingly out of self-preservation, had started to instinctively inch away from him on the bed when he began to approach the bedside. The paranoid side of her that always protected her was setting off alarm bells about him coming closer to her. Her body was straining to get away from him as soon as his cold presence became more pronounced. 

In one of his gloved hands there were three of those foul-tasting vials. 

Once he was by the bed, he carefully put the vials on the bedside table. Hannah was only slightly relieved but still on guard to see he hadn't made any sudden moves to attack her. The vampire was too controlled but something was still _off_ about him. 

There was a heaviness around him that made her think of a rabid dog with a weathered chain about to break at the slightest provocation. 

"I suggest you take these now so that by tonight you will be ready for school as is expected. People were already wagging their tounges about you and that worthless vampire missing your classes at the same time. You wouldn't want people to think you were doing something _indecent_ with the bum, now would you...?" his voice was quiet yet Hannah could hear the hints of anger. 

" _As always, I have to clean up after him the most_ ," these words were now so low she could scarcely hear them.

 _For setting me up to babysit the guy, he surely hates his guts_...

Hannah watched him warily as he took one of the vials and pulled off the top. It was clear that he wasn't going to let her take them by herself this time but wanted her to take them in front of him. 

_I don't want him to touch me for it._.., reaching out while her eyes still showed her suspicion at having him so near her, Hannah inwardly cursed at how her outstretched hand trembled. 

She could barely get a hold of the thing he had in his hand and dread began to fill her when she looked up at his eyes and saw a sharpness to them. 

"Why are children so resistant when taking their medicine...?" that was all the warning she got before his free hand suddenly reached out for her jaw. With his cold thin fingers squeezing her face painfully, Hannah couldn't move away quickly enough. Even with his gloves she felt the iciness of his touch. 

"Ge... Uff...!" telling the vampire to get off her was pointless. He was squeezing her face in such a way her lips were uncomfortably puckered to receive the foul tasting contents of the vial in his hand. Her hands reached feebly to stop him but all her palms met was the hardness of his chest covered in that neat uniform of his. 

_Get the fuck off me!,_ her eyes glared into his and she felt her heart increase in beat in panic of seeing them now so up close. 

He didn't have the round pupils of a human. His pupils were nothing more than thin almost reptilian slits in the unusual magenta of his irises. They didn't even expand or retract showing her just how _empty_ of normal emotions Reiji was. 

He probably wasn't even seeing her at all when forcing that 'medicine' into her mouth. 

"Swallow it," his low order sent a chill down her spine and without her wanting to, she swallowed out of reflex. The disgusting thick liquid burned her throat sharply and she hated how his command had made her follow his instructions. 

He made her feel like a child. 

"That was for the wound on the side of your neck," he informed her calmly as if he weren't almost on top of the bed with him leaning over her weak body and his hand gripping her face. 

His hand was literally lifting her off the bed by her face and his fingers dug into her cheeks to force her mouth open. 

If she thought the vial to 'heal' her was bad, the next one was the most hellish one. She suspected he purposely gave her this one with the intent to hurt her. 

"It might take you long with the anemia but this will increase your blood iron at a quicker pace," pure agony filled the insides of her mouth and she let out a garbled scream as the painful liquid entered her body. It was like her very veins were split open by her own quickened pulse. The potion heated her blood until it boiled under her skin. 

_He's fucking killing me_!, renewed strength had her pushing harder at the chest of the apathetic vampire and his expressionless eyes finally showed some emotion in a frown. She mentally cursed at how uselessly heavy her legs were that she couldn't even kick him away. 

"You are strong for a human," her hands were actually managing to make him use some of his own strength to stay stock still nearly on top of her. 

"Perhaps I shouldn't have given you that one..." 

_You shouldn't have touched me in the first place!_

"Nevertheless, we have one final one... You are almost done," he almost sounded as if he were _praising_ her for handling it by force. 

"This one is one to give you the appearance of health and maybe will return some of your strength. However the secondary effects are that you will sleep for ten hours uninterrupted," this had her widening her eyes at the prospect of her passing out in front of this guy again. 

She really didn't want to take this one with him around. Least of all with Yui walking around alone in the mansion. 

Trying to shake her head frantically in his unforgiving grip she allowed her alarm to show in her pale gray eyes. 

As if reading her thoughts in her panicked stare, Reiji spoke as calmly as he always had, making it difficult for her to trust his words. 

"You will be left alone in your current state. You _reek_ of Shuu so my brothers will most likely kill you rather than bite you for now. Even being so close to you _sickens_ me to my stomach," that spite she always had detected in Reiji's voice whenever he spoke of Shuu was present and made his features look stiffer in carefully contained loathing. 

_Is that supposed to make me feel any better?!_

"Also, your friend Yui-san seems more careful than even you are. She somehow managed to escape the unwanted attentions of my younger brothers though unfortunately for me the broth she's made for you was spilled along the way..." 

_She was getting attacked downstairs during this whole time this fuck was talking to me?_!, now she understood that brief moment he had paused when talking to her earlier in their conversation. 

Reiji had _known_ what was happening downstairs with Yui. 

"Take this quickly to not make yet _another_ person have to go through the tedious process of looking after you." 

The dreaded third and final vial touched her puckered lips and in an act of rebellion Hannah clamped her teeth to keep its contents from entering her mouth. 

"You really are a stupid human," the glass brim of the vial pressed painfully at her teeth and gums. If he pressed any harder her would cut her lips with shattered glass. 

"Take it, you dimwitted girl. I already told you that you will not be tampered with," the flat darkness of his command had her part her teeth only slightly. Tears of anger filled her eyes as she glared hatefully at him but he wasn't bothered by her stare. 

This final potion was sickeningly sweet. She hated things with overwhelming flavor and this sweetness was offending her taste buds with a stinging sensation over too much stimulation. 

Her hands pushing at his chest became numbed almost instantly when the syrupy 'medicine' went down her throat. 

"Finally, you will stop your problematic behavior at least for some hours until school starts again." 

His long fingers painfully gripping her face suddenly let go of her and Hannah fell heavily back on the bed without any fight left in her. The mattress underneath her felt almost like nothing as a warm numbness took over her. This potion, although as vile as the rest, made her almost peaceful. Even all her aches and pains were vanishing with it coursing through her almost depleted veins. 

"There now...," Reiji spoke but her mind couldn't hear exactly what he was saying as her eyelids lowered. 

_I could sleep forever.._. 

She hated this bastard for making her sleep again and she especially hated him for forcing such a false peace over her mind that way. To _think_ that she could get such a calming emotion from such a creature was both laughable and offensive to her. 

It was an _artificial_ serenity she couldn't control because it came from him. Reiji had taken control of her so easily and it irked her to no end. 

Against her will, Hannah slipped into a dreamless sleep Reiji had provided. No images of her past before being an orphan haunted her in her mind. It was a sleep that she would have desperately wished for back in her childhood but she now saw as a curse due to the place she was in. Being so unguarded in the presence of a vampire couldn't even stop the weak side buried deeply within her memories from greedily _taking_ what that final potion offered her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some writers (well a lot) add personal things into their stories. For instance that creepy asf doll was real when I was around 7 years old. My very religious and abusive grandmother had it given to her as a gift by her sister overseas.
> 
> That doll was supposed to be an angel but it's porcelain wings got broken in the packaging. She was just as described with a smiling face and some teeth showing but her stare was so creepily flat that it scared me from the start. She was put on top of one of the twin beds in my grandmother's guest room. And I had to SLEEP in that guest room whenever visiting. Sometimes I'd wake up during the night to see the lights of cars passing by illuminating that shitty doll through the windows. My nightmares were of that thing coming to life and even eating me sometimes, lol. 
> 
> One day my then teen uncle broke it and put it back on the bed. He was a total bastard cos he let my grandma beat my legs bloody with a belt buckle cos she thought it was me that broke that scary thing.
> 
> I'll never forget that damn doll. That shit fucked me up. 
> 
> Anyways, let's move on to the actual Author's Note:
> 
> This is a turning point chapter. What I mean by turning point is that now things will drastically change not only for Hannah but for Yui too. Things that affect either girl will affect each other. Also, for those that read ITS, remember that in Laito's pov he suspected that Shuu's former brides that had disappeared were killed off by Reiji himself and it was proven true when Reiji tortured Yui in that story to get revenge on Shuu. (Yui had chosen Shuu in that story although her ship was with Ayato)
> 
> So yeah, Hannah's biggest danger is Reiji from now on and Hannah's weakness is Yui.
> 
> The thing is how he'll go about it. 
> 
> Please leave a kudos and/or review if you enjoyed!
> 
> Sorry for the tediously long chapter. I just wanted to show how Hannah came to the realization that she's pretty much stuck even with someone as lazy as Shuu.
> 
> Also my chapters will probably become more faster paced with Yui and Hannah settled into their new roles and understanding the brothers they're dealing with. They'll still be long tho cos I always write longer chapters, with multiple povs.


	10. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: violence, two trolling triplets, profanity, hair pulling, Yui having a slow but sure breakdown.

Yui watched the simmering contents in the pot in front of her. She was alone in the kitchen and so far she hadn't seen any of the brothers. With the early hours of morning, it was still dark outside. She anticipated that when the sun fully rose the vampires would just remain in their rooms to rest.

That was what she hoped for and even took some kind of security in. Hannah would probably say she was being foolish in thinking that way because she never let her guard down in front of strangers or unfamiliar surroundings. But Yui latched on to the thought that she could be safe even for a couple of moments alone in the kitchen. 

This silence without the feeling of danger breathing down her neck was the only peace Yui had found since getting there. If it wasn't the constant fear of being attacked by the brothers like in her dreams, it was the sensation of persistently being watched by unseen eyes that now even extended to inside of their room. 

The warmth coming from the stove in front of her was almost normal. It reminded her of the times she would spend summers at her father's home and she would cook for both of them. Cooking was such a mundane ordinary task. She wouldn't necessarily call it her most favorite thing in the world but doing such a thing in such a place gave her a small sense of her old life before coming to the mansion. 

During most of the school year she would be at the boarding school but during holidays and summer, she would be with her father. It had only been the two of them and sometimes he would disappear off to the church to take care of things before the next service while Yui would be left alone to entertain herself with cleaning and cooking. 

Her father didn't tell her to do those things. It was all done on her own because she felt it was the only thing she could do to kill some time. Seiji Komori would always come home to be surprised at seeing she had prepared a meal for the both of them. It was as if he hadn't expected her to still be there waiting for him. 

Although strict when it came to certain things like boys, going out alone and adhering to the school's rules, Seiji wasn't a bad parent to Yui. He was barely around since she had started going to the boarding school and she always understood it was all just a part of his job as a priest. 

Despite the separation of her going to school and his job, Seiji was honestly the only parent she had ever known. 

Yui frowned slightly just thinking about him now. Ever since getting there she had kept avoiding truly thinking about the man. She didn't hate him and doubted she was even capable of it but the fact that he had put her and Hannah there still lingered there in the back of her mind mockingly. 

_He tricked me..._

Yui didn't like the dark feeling of betrayal whenever she remembered that he had been the one to send them there. Her father must have had his reasons for doing what he did... 

He had even looked upset at the idea of not being able to take her with him to Europe. She had wanted to beg him to take her with him even though she didn't know exactly what job he'd be doing so far away. He was just the priest of a small parish and him being sent to Europe seemed so farfetched that she had questioned it and it had angered him into even snapping at her that she had to go. 

_"You must stay here in Japan. You cannot go where I am going."_

She had been upset by his order but... She had also seen an expression of pain in his eyes when he had said it that he hadn't hidden in time.

Her father had been just as upset as she had been on the day he had told her the news. 

Shivering, she wrapped her arms around herself. Even with her school's blazer still on, she still was cold inside the mansion's kitchen. Her trembling was more like an involuntary reflex she couldn't suppress even with the warmth of the stove before her and the coldness behind her back. 

She missed her old home. It was a small house but it was safe. Her old room in her father's home had been like any other girl's room. There had been posters on the walls, books on a bookshelf that Hannah ended up giving to her after finishing, pictures from school glued to her full length mirror. Even the memory of her old chipped white dresser made her homesick. 

The Sakamaki mansion was far too impersonal and cold. There was nothing to remind her of home there except for Hannah that was... 

_"You can take Hannah-san with you... The two of you have always been close... You can look after each other when there... There's no need for you to be alone."_

"Why would he want both of us here...?" the whisper left her lips almost venomously. Yui stiffened as her eyes widened when another emotion came crawling out as if to reprimand her for her suspicions. It was something instinctive that always came just when she was angered at someone else. 

_Guilt_. 

Towards herself for being justifiably _angry_. For daring to question and doubting her father. Even feeling such a thing was almost _forbidden_ for her. 

_Why_?, a part of her loathed and feared the negativity. It was suffocating for her. It always was. Was she truly that unable to feel something deemed as _normal_ by others? 

She _should_ be angry. She _should_ question everything including her father's involvement. Why did he insist they had to come here? Why was he angry when she tried to go with him? What was his involvement with the vampires? 

But she somehow couldn't ask herself these things long enough to come up with answers. She couldn't even be furious at him and it frustrated her. 

As a child she had been seen as too empathic, too forgiving and too emotional. It was something she had often disliked within herself. At times she assumed there must be something truly wrong with her. Like a vital part of her was _missing_. 

She forgave even if the other person was undeserving of it because she would try to reason why the other person was the way they were. In school she had forgiven her bullies as soon as they apologized to her, irritating Hannah into saying, " _They're faking it and will do it again because they know you won't tell and will forgive them again_... " 

Was she really that easy to manage and be taken advantage of? This was something that came as easily to her as breathing. She forgave because she could see what had made the other person do it. It was a part of her own nature to. But was it _really_ her? Did she have her ability to feel upset towards others _taken away_ somehow? 

She couldn't even feel anger towards her own father for having them stay in a house full of vampires. He had lied about where she was going. She was certain of it yet it was like her mind was _incapable_ of thinking the situation over and correctly assigning the blame towards the one who had literally given them both away. 

_I should hate him but I can't_..., now having all her anger towards her father was directed at herself, Yui was confused. How typical of her. It was as if her mind and emotions were programmed to keep her hateful thoughts just to herself. Being unable to hate him was self-destructive for her because she didn't feel in her heart that she could even do it. 

Hannah was right about her being too good a person that she could end up hurting herself without intending to. Yui was innocently naive and Hannah was cruelly logical. If the other girl were by her side at that moment she would just order her to snap out of it and wake up. 

_I wish she'd just say it. She hasn't mentioned my father either as if she doesn't want to hurt me but I really want her to just say what I can't..._

Biting her lower lip, Yui closed her eyes, letting the familiar warmth from the stove soothe her thoughts. In a minute or so she would have to turn off the stove and quietly go back to their room to try to help Hannah at least eat something to start recuperating from her ordeal with Shuu. 

_It's almost done._ , forcing herself to focus on the broth she had been making interrupted her self-deprecation. These thoughts were just something she kept to herself. Like a dirty little secret only she knew. Even Hannah didn't know of the silent battles Yui waged on herself whenever such situations arose. How she would _hate_ herself for trying to step out of her customary way of thinking about others around her.

_What's wrong with me...?_

Shaking her head she started filling a porcelain bowl she had found when searching the kitchen. At first she had felt awkward going through someone else's house for the task but was grateful that even though the kitchen was large, things were easy for her to find. There was an orderliness in the room that quickly had her give up her misgivings about locating everything she needed. 

And it didn't have any of the brothers. Since she hadn't seen any of the brothers eat 'human food' outside of dinner she was beginning to assume that the kitchen was the least likely place in the mansion to see them. 

Yet... She could never be too careful. 

As soon as she filled the bowl just enough, she found a tray to put it on so it'd be easier for her to carry all necessary things in only one trip. Just going alone to the kitchen had been risky enough for her and she was grateful nothing had happened while she had been there. 

Yui wasn't going to test her good fortune further by staying longer than she needed to. 

Getting everything ready, the meal she had prepared was on a tray on the counter by the stove. It was a simple broth and some juice. She knew of Hannah's particular taste. Her dislike for things that were too bland or too sweet was something Yui had grown accustomed to over the years of knowing her. 

_Now I'll go upstairs using the staircase close to the gardens. That way I won't have to pass most of the rooms the brothers are in..._

That had been a wise plan until she felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck rise. A coldness that was becoming too familiar to her since coming to the Sakamaki mansion seemed to caress her turned back and made her go still. The peace of being alone without the foreboding sensation of being observed disappeared in an instant. 

"Well, well, chinchinashi! Ore-sama never expected to find you here. Guess we're _both_ lucky," Ayato's voice was so close to the back of her head that she could literally feel his breath moving her hair slightly. 

_I didn't even hear him come in_!, her small hands gripped the sides of the tray she had been about to lift off the counter. 

"Aren't you going to turn around to greet ore-sama... ? You're in my house and you won't even look at me? What a rude guest," he didn't sound angry. More like he was _teasing_ her but Yui knew he was dangerous. 

Especially when she was alone. 

"Sorry, Ayato-kun, but I must hurry upstairs!" quickly blurting out those words she lifted the tray and attempted to make an escape without looking once at the vampire that had been standing just inches behind her. 

"Oi, chinchinashi...," the teasing on his voice was gone. There was a warning edge now that made Yui want to run even if it meant spilling the contents on the tray.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" a hand forcefully grabbed her elbow in a powerful yank that had her lose her grip on the tray. Being forced to turn around, the porcelain bowl and glass of juice on the tray she had been holding fell to the floor instantly shattering. The noise of breaking glass was so loud to Yui's ears that she reacted without thinking and slapped Ayato's hand away to get him to release her. 

She never knew silence could be so defending after her brief thoughtless action. Yui wasn't a violent person. Even the thought of hurting someone else made her feel shame. 

_I didn't even hit him hard..._

Standing before her face to face Ayato looked at her coldly with those bright green eyes of his as he harshly released her arm. 

"You've got some nerve." 

Her heart began to race as she slowly took some steps back. Her school shoes crunched over the broken bowl and glass on the floor and she inwardly winced at the sound. 

"You come into our house and think you're too good for ore-sama... You were even given special treatment with choosing and it's gotten to your head," Yui shook her head wordlessly. She didn't know what to say to get him to back away.

His silent approach was at the same pace as her own movements. He moved forward the more she moved back. It was as if he were stalking her ready to immediately pounce if she suddenly did flee from him. 

"You should be grateful ore-sama is even bothering with you. You're not even much to look at and barely have any _tits_ to speak of, " a mean smile appeared on his lips when he insulted her. He was perhaps inwardly laughing at his insulting joke towards her. 

_I'm far from grateful_..., blushing at his cruel words, she kept that comment to herself as she quickly eyed the nearest exit in the kitchen. 

To get away from Ayato she would need to run around the counter island in the middle of the kitchen to reach the door to the dinning room. She would have to forgo using the stairs close to the gardens like before. It would be too far for her to get there and that area of the mansion was too dark for her to run at full speed to safety with a vampire breathing down her back in a chase. 

"I won't let you get away that easily, chinchinashi," the threatening knowing smirk on Ayato's face showed his fangs now and that was what pushed Yui into action. 

She ran around the counters and headed as fast as her legs would take her towards the swinging doors she knew lead to the dining room. 

Hearing a string of threats behind her only made her move faster through the dining room until she had to suddenly stop when finally reaching the grand staircase. 

To her dismay, Laito was already waiting there for her patiently on the bottom of the stairs. He was the only thing keeping her from going upstairs. 

Freezing the moment she saw him calmly standing there, Yui knew this had all been planned. Soon she felt Ayato's own presence coming up behind her again. It was excited and so cold, that she already deemed it as Ayato taking his time in approaching them now that she had Laito in front of her. 

She didn't know where she could run with Laito blocking the way upstairs and Ayato being right behind her to catch her if she attempted to flee again. And unfortunately for her, _both_ vampires knew she couldn't escape. 

Images of her dreams came back to her again as if warning her. The memory of multiple fangs piercing her flesh were so vividly fresh in her mind when she saw Laito's slow small teasing smile. 

"Ayato-kun, did you really have to be _so mean_ to bitch-chan...? She looks like she's seen a ghost!" his fake sympathy chilled her. Laito wasn't even going to try to hide that he found her fear amusing. 

"She hit me! Stupid chinchinashi thinks she's can just do as she pleases!" Ayato's voice was so close to her now that she visibly stiffened. She could barely even breathe with the two of them in close proximity. 

"Aww, but Ayato-kun! Remember Shuu-san and Reiji-san said we have to play _nice_ with these two bitch-chans we have now," there was a nauseating sulkiness in Laito's tone. 

"Let's just grab her and forget about the other one. Shuu's put his spit all over that other girl," Ayato's crude words had Yui's eyes widening at the realization that they weren't going to just attack her but they were going to take her somewhere _else_ to do it. 

_I need to find a distraction. They could grab me at any moment if I run suddenly_., even though Laito looked deceptively relaxed, Yui could see something in his stance before her that said he was more than prepared to stop her if she so much as moved an inch to get away from Ayato's approach behind her. 

"I wouldn't mind taking the other bitch-chan for myself...!" Laito's voice had a breathy quality that had Yui's stomach turn. "Maybe Shuu-san will be nice in letting me play with her sometime... ," there was something genuinely sickening about the falsely gentle grin on Laito's face while he caressed the brim of his hat with his fingertips. Yui didn't want any of the triplets, _especially this one,_ near Hannah. Something about Laito in particular always made her blood run cold by just being in the same room with him. 

"That blood of yours, chinchinashi, smells stronger than ever now," Ayato had a hungered tremble to his voice and Laito giggled with excitement filling his eyes. 

The tension rising now could only mean that he was going to take her as Laito conveniently stayed there just in case his triplet needed assistance. They could easily stop her if she made an escape due to how focused they were on her. 

She expected it any second. He was going to grab her and-

"Would you two just _shut the fuck up_?! Your perverted shit is loud and getting on my nerves in my room!" recognizing Subaru's voice coming from the top of the stairs, Yui finally saw her chance to run once Ayato and Laito had been distracted by the angry younger vampire. 

"Damn chinchinashi!" she didn't stop running even as she heard Ayato give chase after her. Reaching the top of the stairs, she had no choice but to enter Shuu's side of the mansion due to Subaru blocking the entry to the other wing. Just because he had appeared as if by some miracle didn't mean she trusted him enough to run right past him. He had been the one to grab Hannah the first night to separate them and had even punched her unconscious. 

_"Now, Subaru-kun, why did you have to ruin our fun with the little blond bitch-chan? It's a Friday morning..."_

_"Not my fault you morons wasted your time trying to fill her blood with fear that she got away on you! You should have just grabbed her and gotten it over with instead of playing around!"_

Their voices quickly faded as she frantically went through the dimly lit halls on the second floor but that didn't mean she was completely alone. Ayato was still right behind her. She didn't know what frightened her the most, being chased or the fact that Ayato seemed to be taking his time frightening her with the pursuit itself. He could have quickly grabbed her without having to run after her. 

The chase itself was because he was obviously _toying_ with her. 

A high pitched scream that surprised even her echoed out loudly. It was Yui's own scream when cold fingers grabbed the hair on the back of her head and pulled hard enough to force her on the ground jarringly. The force of her fall had stunned her into expelling all the breath she had in her lungs as soon as her back hit the floor with all her weight. 

Hearing a panting laugh from Ayato, Yui desperately tried to grasp at his unrelenting fingers that twisted in her hair. His pulling was so intense that she could feel hairs being yanked out of her very scalp. 

Having tears of pain forming in her eyes she grabbed his wrist to lessen some of the pressure and made the mistake of looking up at his face. 

Ayato's upside down visage was leaning to look down on her with a smirk as he stood behind her. His pale green eyes were even sharper with excitement at the sight her struggling.

"Ore-sama wanted your bitch of a friend but you'll do just fine," his fangs peeked through his smirking lips. He looked almost playfully boyish to her instead of like some vile vampire out to hurt her. It was terrifying to see just how _normal_ it must be for him to do such things to someone else. 

He would probably hurt her even more if she begged. That revelation was like a stab in the chest for her. She wanted to scream at him to stop but with how his freakish cat-like eyes drank in her expression of pain and fear, Yui knew there was no hope. 

Ayato was liking her reaction to him too much to stop. 

Yui could hear her very heartbeat pounding in her ears. The sound of the fear in her very heart accompanied all of his threatening words. 

"I'll keep you alive and will make you suffer forever, chinchinashi... Now how about making you _scream_ louder than you ever have?" Yui screamed in agony when he lifted her by her hair and began to drag her struggling body. The pain was so startling that her eyes widened letting her tears spill loosely. All she could do was grasp at his wrist with both her hands to gain some small relief for her scalp. 

Her flailing feet tried and failed to press on the carpeting of the hall. The rubber soles of her school shoes even gave off a burning smell as she tried to dig them in to prevent him from dragging her away. 

It was no use. He calmly pulled her as if her struggles were nothing to him. Digging her nails into his wrist to force him to let go only made him mutter a curse before harshly pulling her so suddenly that her calves ached at the strain of trying to keep her feet firmly on the floor. 

She screamed again and again. Just like he wanted. As much as Yui hated to give him what he craved, the horror she was going through couldn't stop her from crying out. He was taking his sweet time in taking her further down the hall to prolong her pain for his personal amusement. 

Yui's panicked eyes could see how many doors they passed in his leisurely pace. Her dreams since coming to that hateful mansion kept appearing in her mind. She could even envision him taking her to some dark unknown place to keep her there where no one but him would hear her screams for help. 

_No, no! Don't let him take me! Somebody please help!_

"LET GO OF ME! SOMEONE HELP!" 

"What nice sounds you make, chinchinashi!" 

He laughed again and Yui for the first time in her life, felt like she truly _hated_ someone. It was as dark and consuming as she had feared. Yui had never felt such a strong emotion before. 

_I hate you! I hate all of you!_ , furious tears moistened her cheeks as she tried to dig her nails in deeper into Ayato's skin. Yui didn't know she could feel such foolish bravery when giving in so briefly to loathing. 

And she called it foolish bravery because her tiny attempt of hurting Ayato made him twist his gripping fist in her hair until she felt her scalp getting wet with her own blood. 

He was literally ripping chunks of her hair out for hurting him. Closing her eyes tightly in pain, Yui couldn't help believing this was the end for her. No one was coming to rescue her and she was being taken by a very angry vampire that was fully intending to make her pay for the small pains she had given him. 

"What part didn't you understand about waiting until they choose...?" 

The grip on her hair loosened but not enough to let her go free. 

Panting from her exertions to get Ayato to let her go, Yui opened her eyes to see Reiji standing before them. She almost broke then. Just when she had been resigning herself to her fate, it had to be just another cold unfeeling vampire that had interrupted Ayato's plans for her. 

"She was alone downstairs acting like she _owned_ the place." 

"I couldn't care less for your reasoning, Ayato. The rules were simple. We gave them three days to choose on their own because of the instructions to keep them alive," through her tear blurred vision she noted that Reiji, although as neatly put together as he usually was, showed hints of tiredness. His eyes had faint shadows underneath as if lack of sleep had finally caught up with him. 

"Shuu bit one of them already! Ore-sama doesn't see a point in following your stupid rules! We never had them before so why start now just because of these two?!" Yui gasped when Ayato's fingers tightened in her hair again. 

Reiji looked at Ayato dully. 

"Shuu was a isolated incident. That worthless fool would have attacked any human close by regardless of who they were-" 

"Don't tell me you're defending him?! You're the _last_ person anyone would expect-!"

"I am not defending him. Far from it in fact. I was merely elaborating about how he's just another _disgrace_ to this family no differently than you," this was the first time Yui had ever seen Reiji smile. It was a humorless lift to his lips that didn't do anything to give emotion to his eyes. 

The sudden stillness from Ayato after Reiji's insulting words had Yui holding her breath. He was so still standing behind her with his fingers still tangled in her hair that she expected him to suddenly attack Reiji and dragging her along with him in doing so. 

"What did you just say...?" Ayato's question was asked lowly further telling her that he could very well do what she had been dreading. 

"I do not see the point in repeating myself. Let Yui-san go to her room and wait until evening when she chooses-" 

"You're just as full of yourself as she is!" Ayato suddenly released her hair in such a way that she fell back on the ground at his unexpected actions. 

"You are hardly in any position to say that about others, Ayato," Reiji informed coolly as Yui was too shocked to move away now that she was finally freed. 

"And you're just begging for a fight because Shuu pissed you off, aren't you?" 

Yui now knew it was her time to go when Reiji's eyes narrowed when looking at Ayato. She was stuck on the floor between two angered vampires. Staying around any longer meant she was perhaps in even more danger than ever before. 

As if remembering she was still there, Yui's breath hitched when Reiji's suddenly sharply looked down at her. 

"Shouldn't you go back to your room? Your friend is resting after resisting to take her medicine. Do not make me feel obligated to take you and _lock_ you there until evening because you're also being a nuisance," his threat was present. Yui wouldn't doubt for a moment that Reiji was fully capable to locking her in her room just so she wouldn't move freely in the house to cause him trouble. 

Breathing in deeply in an attempt to calm herself, Yui stood up slowly. The back of her legs ached but she wasn't going to argue with Reiji. Not this time when he had successfully stopped Ayato. She didn't know if he had done it intentionally out of some hidden compassion or if he was only trying to control everything around him, including Ayato himself. 

_I think it's just control...,_ the other vampire seemed to have an obsession with order that Yui instantly knew that he wouldn't have come unless it was his own rule being broken. 

Walking past Reiji, Yui didn't spare either one of them a glance. She was both too frightened and numbed from what had happened to her previously that she barely had the strength to go through anymore tension coming from the vampire brothers.

She walked slowly but soon enough the threat waned the further she got away from them in the hall. One of her trembling hands reached to the back of her head and she winced at the sting. There definitely was blood under her hair and she shivered recalling just how much force Ayato had used.

With that strength he could have easily broken her bones and even tear her apart. Just like in her dreams in which she'd heard the splintering sounds of her bones being ripped and crushed. 

Reaching her and Hannah's room seemed to have taken her forever but the relief of seeing that dark wooden door made Yui relax again. Inside she wouldn't be alone with those vampires anymore. Even if she felt like she was being watched from within, it was the only safe place left for them in the mansion.

Stepping inside, she closed the door and rested her back against it. She took a couple of trembling breaths to try to grow accustomed to being free again.

 _It would have been so easy for him to take me and kill me..._ , hating her weakness, Yui wiped at the tears that she hadn't even realized had been streaking down her cheeks on her way back to their room. She hadn't cried since she was little, having grown tired of being teased for being emotional that she had suppressed her tears for years. Yes she could feel sadness and the familiar sting in her eyes but genuinely crying again felt so foreign to her now.

Even the sounds of wet sniffling coming from her were odd to her as she rubbed at her eyes as if to futilely stop the endless flow. Controlling them was growing difficult for her the more she just stood there. 

_Feeling sorry for myself only makes them worse!_

Trying to even her breathing despite her trembling, Yui pulled away from the door. She couldn't let Hannah wake up to seeing her that way. The other girl would become violent if she found out about Ayato. In the past, Hannah's anger had been so volatile that she had to be restrained and even locked in the Quiet Punishment Room back in their boarding school due to the nuns being unable to handle her. Their school had even forced her into sports to help her control her violent energy and it seemed to have worked to some degree but... 

If she found out she would hunt Ayato down and would try to kill him herself. Yui just couldn't allow that to happen because she knew that Hannah wouldn't be able to actually handle a vampire with her fists alone. A human was one thing but this new threat was something that even Hannah wouldn't be able to overcome.

 _We still have to choose_..., that was another thing in their situation that made Yui feel more hopeless than ever before.

Heading tentatively to the bed her sleeping friend was on, Yui's eyes widened upon seeing that Hannah was no longer lying on her own side of the bed. Her friend's body was lying sideways on the bed as if carelessly thrown there. Even the blankets Yui had pulled over her had been kicked off in an obvious struggle.

"Hannah...?!" feeling dread at seeing her so immobile, Yui quickly got on the bed to shake her shoulder to get a response from her.

Nothing. All Hannah gave to her was her quiet breathing in her sleep. This was the first time she'd ever seen the other girl sleep so heavily. It was an unnatural sleep that regardless of all the noise Yui had been making with her crying, she hadn't even stirred from. 

_She looks healthier than before.._., frowning at the sudden change, Yui was right about Hannah's appearance. When Yui had first found Hannah laying on the floor by the bed, she had looked almost cadaverous. The sight of Hannah's pasty skin and hollowed features had been such a drastic change that Yui was shocked into thinking she was seeing a completely different person.

Now, even though still sickly wan, Hannah's features were more filled out and refreshed. She still had some shadowy hollows under her eyes but her face was relaxed in her sleep unlike before. 

It was a miracle Hannah had survived. This was a stark reminder for Yui. When she had burst into the only opened room in Shuu's wing earlier to question him about where Hannah was and he'd said a simple "She's left" Yui hadn't once thought her friend was in such a bad state. Finding her in their room later with her skin so cold and pale had been terrifying for Yui. 

_She could have died...,_ feeling a fresh onslaught of tears coming again, Yui tried to move Hannah's sleeping body the best she could on the bed to make her more comfortable. She couldn't waste her time crying over this. Hannah needed her right now and she was the only that could do it. 

When satisfied at having her friend settled back on the bed, Yui pulled the blankets over her again as she had done before and saw how her own hands trembled at doing something so simple. That whole time since coming to their room, Yui still had the after effects of the fear she had experienced outside in the hall. Even when forcing herself to be calm enough to help Hannah, there were still signs of physical distress present. 

The tears she had been trying to control so much were still wet on her cheeks when Yui took a seat on an armchair close to the bed to watch over her friend as she slept. She wasn't sure if Ayato and Laito would come inside their room to attack them. Being inside the same house with them gave those two vampires far too many opportunities. 

_If they do show up, can we even fight them?,_ pulling her knees up to her chest, Yui was going to stay up as long as she was able to. She wouldn't be able to sleep even if she wanted to. With the attacks and the time to choose coming so close, all hopes for rest were taken from her. Not even being mentally exhausted would help her close her eyes again. 

_Choosing_..., her chest tightened. In a couple more hours, they would have to choose one of those six vampire boys. Yui tried to steady her trembling hands to no avail by clenching them into fists as another unspoken truth came to her about the word ' _choice_ '. That word was quickly becoming like a _curse word_ to her because they weren't just choosing vampires to feed from them. 

Yui knew deep down that what they were both truly choosing were their own potential deaths.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It turned out darker than I thought it would. 😭😭 I originally planned just to have her escape him from the kitchen but I know Ayato ain't that quick to give up and he just chased Yui and caused her fear and pain cos he gets off on that shit. Sorry, Kris. I'm a sadistic pervert.
> 
> Anyways events that happened in this chapter will shape what happens with Yui from now on, especially in the next chapter. Poor girl is so scared cos she understands that they're fucked.
> 
> Reiji's idea of "unscathed" is skewed... Tho Yui avoided being bitten (well more like Ayato wanted to terrify tf out of her before taking a sip) 
> 
> PS: I'm kinda meh on this chapter. Sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes! Those tend to slip past me and I only discover them AFTER posting for some reason. Stupid brain. 
> 
> Thank y'all for all the kudos, subscriptions and private bookmarks. Even if you're shy I appreciate you reading my fucked up mess! 🤣
> 
> Now I'm going back to my Twitter accounts to perv some. 
> 
> Please leave a kudos and/or review if you liked!


	11. Fated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not really much to warn about other than Shuu being a manipulative slut-shaming pervert, lmaooo.
> 
> Oh and Hannah's potty mouth. She's extremely pissed off.

To be forced to make a decision when each of the vampires surrounding Yui and Hannah in the study downstairs emanated only foreboding was like standing in front of a firing squad. 

The time to choose had come. For Yui it felt like time had went by too quickly but perhaps that was her just wanting stop time altogether to not make a decision that would change everything from bad to worse.

And things could only get worse. Of that Yui was certain after her experience with Ayato out in the hallway in the early hours of the morning. With both Ayato's attack and her dreams plaguing her, Yui even questioned if she was awake or still _dreaming_. 

Trying to be as unreadable as Hannah sitting beside her, Yui folded her hands over her lap, subconsciously fiddling with the cloth of her school skirt in her nervousness. Her hands were already sweating. Although nervous she managed to not show too much even though she was certain the vampires knew she was afraid of them and perhaps relished their effect on her. 

_How can I choose in these conditions...?_

Signs of lack of rest were all too present in her paleness and dark shadows under her eyes. It was evident that she hadn't slept all day. During their sleeping hours she had spent her entire time staring off sightlessly from the armchair she had sat on since returning back to their room. Her eyes hadn't even been watching over Hannah like she had intended to. All she did was stare off blankly into empty space with her mind numbingly free of all thought.

Hannah knew she hadn't slept at all. After her friend had awakened, murmuring something about being tired of sleeping all the time, she had paused to truly look at Yui from their bed. Her gray eyes had that observant quiet sharpness to them that Yui knew was Hannah's way of reading her. Nothing could be hidden from her when she got that particular look in her eyes. 

_"What did they do to you last night...?"_

Yui should have known she couldn't keep secrets from her. It was always impossible to. The other girl had to just look at her once to know something was wrong and as much as it hurt Yui, she knew she couldn't tell her. If she told her the truth, Hannah would behave recklessly and would get herself hurt. That was something that was clear as day to her.

It might seem like a stupid thing to do. Keeping a secret from her friend... But what else could she possibly do? She couldn't very well put Hannah in harm's way to defend and protect her from someone that could tear her apart if he truly wanted to. If it hadn't been for Ayato wanting to toy with Yui's fear for a while, Yui would have been dead in an instant herself. _Both_ of their lives were clearly in the hands of the Sakamaki brothers and that was the _true_ reason Yui remained silent.

_"Nothing... They just chased me through the mansion..."_

Lies. _All lies_. She had always been such a terrible liar and Hannah had seen right through her. The look of betrayal that had briefly passed in Hannah's eyes had felt almost piercing for Yui and made her start to doubt her decision.

The evidence of her lies was still under her hair. Earlier when she had carefully combed her hair, she had felt a scab where she had bled from Ayato's hair pulling. It was less than an inch in length and ached whenever she ran her fingertips over it. She hoped that it wasn't visible under her pale hair to Hannah or anyone else. She was certain that anyone would be able to see the dark reddened rise of slowly healing skin right underneath the hair on the back of her head if she wasn't careful.

The church's teachings of turning the other cheek ran through her mind as if to lessen the blow of the anger she directed instinctively at herself. The church had taught her how to be the 'bigger person' so to speak but sometimes being that accepting of a wrongdoing was like she was betraying herself for something that couldn't be changed. 

Reiji sat behind the desk in front of them like a presiding judge. His eyes were as observant as Hannah's eyes were and like always, it unnerved Yui to be on the receiving end of it. Shuu was beside him giving off that dismissive lethargy that Yui guessed was his normal state. His eyes were only partly open looking at her and Hannah as if they were nothing more than just added furniture to the room. 

_I really hope he doesn't bite Hannah again. He almost killed her..._

"Well, Yui-san... Have you decided?" being put on the spot first had Yui visibly tensing. Reiji stared at her blandly as if her decision wasn't his highest priority and that he was only waiting for her to get things over with so they could continue on with their precious schedule. 

"I...," she looked down at her hands. For some reason she couldn't stare at this vampire for long. The presences behind her were pressing down on her the more she waited. 

_Choose... I have to choose! But who can I...?_

Looking up again, she saw that Reiji was still waiting on her with that patience that seemed more like forced politeness than consideration. She knew he wouldn't let her leave that study without picking at least one of them. 

"I choose... I choose Reiji-san...," the silence that followed after her answer was clogging. Even she surprised herself with the words leaving her lips, yet Reiji didn't even show surprise at her choice. Yui was already regretting having said what she said when noting his cold acceptance. 

As if he had been _expecting_ that decision. 

Hannah was quiet when giving her a side glance yet it was obvious that she had _many_ things to say about her picking Reiji. 

_Can I change my choice?,_ when opening her lips to take back her words Reiji's eyes showed a hint of some threatening annoyance. 

"You've made your choice," the warning edged in his statement. He didn't need to say any other words. Yui, who had already felt the oppressive air from being surrounded by them all at once, closed her mouth at having him just put an end to it. 

_What have I done...?_ , Reiji was intimidating to her. Out of all of the vampires present, he was the one that scared her the most without even having to put in much effort. As Yui tried to reason with her choice, she hated to finally conclude that in spite of how unsettling he was, Reiji was also the only one that hadn't done anything outwardly violent around her. 

"What about the frosted bitch?" Ayato's question made Yui stiffen further to look at him standing behind her. His pale green eyes were glaring at the back of Hannah's head while her friend didn't react. If Yui didn't know any better, she'd say Hannah's own dismissive nature was only angering Ayato further. 

The other girl didn't once acknowledge his presence or his words. She didn't even flinch probably fully aware that he was speaking about her. 

"Ito-san made her choice yesterday. She is Shuu's bride now," Reiji's news had Yui glance at Hannah in shock. Hannah didn't show any changes in her demeanor at all when the vampire had uttered those words. 

_I know Reiji-san said that she had made her choice before... But I didn't know it was actually_ this _choice_. 

More nervous now, she dared to look at Shuu who hadn't once spoken since they had come into the study and saw that he was giving Reiji a heavy lidded stare. 

"Should have expected as much... How bothersome," he scoffed softly and she sensed that Shuu had more to say but the blonde vampire had gone silent again by closing his eyes as if wanting to doze off until everything was over. 

Reiji didn't respond, unbothered by his comment. 

"Ore-sama demands the frosted bitch chooses again!" Yui nearly flinched at Ayato's angry voice. Having that vampire mere inches away from her again had her as nervous as she had been in the early morning hours out in the hall. 

_He wants to hurt her...,_ No one needed to tell her that this vampire was targeting Hannah to punish her for what she did to him the first day they had been in the mansion. She had noticed the hateful looks he'd given her friend in the past few days. If he were given a chance he would _destroy_ Hannah for having attacked him. The pure loathing in his current glare towards the indifferent yet aggressive girl spoke volumes of how much he'd grown to hate her. 

"Why would you want that? It's not like she'd choose _you_ after all that bullshit you did last night," Yui held her breath upon hearing Subaru's damning words. He might as well had confessed for her. 

"She wouldn't choose you either!" Ayato barked back, falling for the younger vampire's baiting comment. 

"As if I'd want to be chosen by any of these stupid girls. This whole thing is a waste of time," Subaru's low mutter only further enraged Ayato. 

"If you didn't want to be chosen why did you try to snatch one of them up all for yourself on the first night?" Ayato's question was asked meanly and the threatening pressure already present in the room had begun to rise.

Most of the time the vampires didn't have much presence except for when they were aggressive. She had noticed that as well as how the room temperature would plummet if they were too physically close. 

It made it easier for them to sneak up on people. That was exactly how Ayato had silently chased her and hadn't let her know he was so close behind her until grabbing her hair. 

Now Subaru's presence was stronger due to his anger at Ayato's question. The atmosphere of aggression grew from where he was standing close to the door. She was already bracing herself just in case he lunged at Ayato who was inconveniently standing behind her seat. 

Shuu interrupted the ensuing silence lowly without opening his eyes to look at either of the arguing vampires, "If you both want her so badly you can have her..." 

_What...? He's okay with just handing her off like that...?!,_ looking at Shuu in disbelief, she doubted he was even fully awake or simply was ignoring the events going on around him. 

This vampire truly didn't care about anything. He never spoke much at all but the fact that he would be just fine with giving Hannah away like she was just some _thing_ that he had grown tired of or never had an interest in made her almost angry at him. 

"That would be enough for tonight. We're already behind schedule as it is," Reiji's flat reminder didn't do anything to lessen the threat growing inside the room. The menacing sensation only finally waned when Subaru harshly left the study and closed the door behind him with a loud resounding slam that vibrated the walls. 

Feeling awkward even after the tension Subaru had given off had dissipated, Yui regretted glancing at Reiji across from her to find that he was staring back at her. 

He probably hadn't looked away from her even once since she had chosen him. She had been too focused on hiding her fear that she hadn't realized that Reiji had been watching her during that entire time. Now noticing his unnatural focus on her made her physically unable to look away from him. 

The mental image of her being like some pinned bug to be looked at under such detached observation had her blanching under his stare.

Why did he make her feel this way... ? He was just _looking_ at her but now that she had picked him, it was as if his stare had intensified. It was still as unfeeling on the surface as before but something about his eyes told her that this was the _real_ Reiji looking back at her for only a brief moment. 

"After school, you girls will be moved from your room and into our wings," the discomforting prolonged eye contact that had held her prisoner finally let her go when he looked away. It could have only been for a split second that had been an eternity for her. 

"So you're separating us," Hannah stated flatly. Although she didn't sound angry, Yui knew that she was inwardly furious. Her friend could either be loud in her fury or just as emotionless as the vampires themselves. 

"We can't very well drink your blood in the same room. Unless you _enjoy_ that lack of privacy for such an activity," Reiji's blunt retort had Yui's eyes widening. 

_Drinking our blood. They're really going to..._

"No, I don't particularly _enjoy_ that kind of activity at all," some tell-tale hints of bitterness entered Hannah's falsely calm voice. 

"Good, then you girls will have your own private rooms from this night forward," having won the argument before it had even begun, Reiji dismissed Hannah's obvious anger. 

*****

Hannah's night couldn't get any worse. Her mood was already soured with the current chain of events. First she had snapped at Yui during break at their school's rooftop when the other girl hadn't been guilty about anything _other_ than just picking the _shittiest most manipulative vampire_ in the mansion. And second she had also been left _stranded_ at the school because of _Shuu_.

At that very moment Yui was alone with that bastard while Hannah was stuck at the school. Who knew what _Reiji_ could be doing to her now while Hannah walked around the academy like some aimless idiot. 

_I shouldn't be angry at her. She already forgave me for snapping at her like that...,_ being forgiven didn't stop Hannah from feeling like shit for it. As a matter of fact, having Yui forgive her only made her feel even more like garbage for both snapping at her and failing to get them out of there in the three days they were given. 

Forced into her current predicament, the only thing she _could_ do for the moment was find Shuu as quickly as possible and leave for the mansion. Knowing Yui was alone with at least _one_ of those damned vampires had her desperate to get out of there. 

The memory of seeing Yui giving her a worried glance before getting in the limo to leave for the mansion still taunted Hannah. The other girl had tried to stay with her but of course that prick Reiji would have none of it.

God she really hated that vampire. Both him and that lazy brother of his that was already proving to be a problem for her. Of all fucking nights for him to stay napping in school, Shuu had to pick the _very same night_ in which they had to 'choose'.

 _Just where in the fuck is that guy?,_ after school had ended for the night Hannah had gone downstairs with Yui to wait for the limo in the lobby. She had made the _stupid mistake_ to think that the shitty blond vampire would be down there with the rest of the blood-suckers.

Shuu had already saved her from having to 'tend' to him by being ready for dinner and the meeting at the study so she had expected him to _at least_ be downstairs. 

But he wasn't. The night kept getting shittier by the minute. Fate might as well have _spit_ on her face with her mounting bad luck. 

If it had been up to her, she would have just _ditched_ his ass. He didn't care about her and she didn't care about him. There were no hard feelings. This was just the way things were and things would have been perfectly easy for her if it weren't for _Reiji's_ nonsense.

Hannah had known she was fucked when Reiji had given her a pointed look after five minutes had passed without Shuu making an appearance in the school's near empty lobby. This was _exactly_ what he had been aiming for this entire time when intimidating her into staying as Shuu's 'bride', _whatever the fuck that meant._

Hannah wasn't going to be allowed inside that limo, much less be permitted to return to Yui without that _lazy asshole_ in tow. 

She barely even knew the layout of the school and with Shuu sleeping most of the time, she doubted he would even respond to her calling out his name when searching for him. 

_Fucking leech ass perverted..._

Because of _him_ not only was she left behind, she also had to _talk_ to other people. This was one of the many things that managed to piss her off. She even had a list of annoying shit that got on her nerves and this was at least on her top five. 

_Socializing_ with people she didn't even fucking know.

She had never been the most social person. She was the exact opposite of friendly and approachable. Disliking meeting others made her speak only when it was necessary to and even then she'd feel awkward the whole time she did it.

Forcing herself to ask around for Shuu made her annoyance with said missing vampire increase tenfold. She was polite in asking for his whereabouts, so she could give herself a pat on the back for not _snarling_ her questions with her growing irritation.

_"Do you know of Shuu Sakamaki? He's a third year. Sleeps everywhere all the time?"_

Thankfully everyone knew who he was. _All_ the Sakamakis seemed to be nauseatingly popular in the academy. Soon enough after she had asked at least three students, word spread about her looking for him and _strangers_ would stop her in the halls without her needing to ask anymore to supply her with information.

_God damn it, now everyone wants to talk to me. Fuck!_

Her face didn't show her annoyance with the unwanted attention. This was something she could play off until _after_ she found him and finally convinced him to go to the mansion.

 _How much can I bet that the limo is gone by now?,_ Reiji was probably laughing his ass off at the mansion already while she stupidly had to walk through the hallways of their school looking for his sloth of an older brother. 

The rooftop, the empty wing of classrooms on the third floor, the infirmary, the announcement room, the music room and even the _fucking janitor's closet_ under the stairs on the first floor. These were only _some_ of the many places the other students told her Shuu could possibly be.

The 'helpful' hints she was given didn't help her in shit unless the other students had intentionally misled her to give her a workout.

_I'm the new girl so of course I'd get some bullshit._

She searched through the first two floors carefully first since she suspected he'd be hiding off somewhere to nap quietly. Feeling even more stupid, like she was dealing with some bratty toddler playing hide and seek, Hannah had checked under desks too just to make sure he wasn't burrowing under one like some damned hamster.

The more irritated she got, the more she cursed inside her mind. She was insulting him every way possible. Every new insult was more colorful than the last. She was even inventing _new_ curse words because of him. 

Briefly spotting one of the generic plain wall clocks in one of the halls she walked through told her that an hour had already passed. _An entire fucking hour._ Seeing just how much time she had _wasted_ had her walking more angrily to her final destination in her mental list of _lazy asshole_ hiding places. 

The hallway with empty classrooms on the third floor. She had saved that area for last and now she was _certain_ the asshole was in one of those unused rooms sleeping without a care in the world.

_Some people have it way too fucking easy. Here I am worried as hell while this guy is just sleeping away like nothing else matters._

Breathing deeply and mentally counting to ten to at least _appear_ calm, she began her final search of each room in that hallway. The school had already gone so silent that she couldn't bear being in there any longer. It wasn't as creepy as the mansion but it was still pretty unnerving to realize just how _alone_ she was in such a large building. 

The sounds of her footsteps were now echoing and the loudness annoyed her. It only made her feel more vulnerable in the foreign place.

Opening a couple of doors in that hallway she was greeted with only empty rooms without a napping vampire. Maybe he had left already without her even knowing it just to piss her off more. 

Clenching her jaw silently, she eventually opened what had to be the fifth empty classroom's door. Like all the previous ones, the lights were off and she quickly found the switch by the door to flood the room with needed illumination. As expected, this classroom didn't even have any desks. It was just some empty room with a few cardboard boxes in some corners and that was it. 

A low grunt sounded out and her eyes followed the sound until finally finding _him_. 

_I should have gone up here first..._

There he was, _like some damned rag doll_ , sitting with his back against the far wall of the room. If he hadn't made a sound she wouldn't have even spotted him there with her quick scanning glance of his newest sleeping place. 

His eyes were opened in an annoyed squint. Even from the doorway she could see that shade of blue in his slightly irritated stare in her direction. 

"Could you turn that light off...?" 

Hannah didn't do as he asked. With his question he might as well had told her that he had no intention of leaving the school at all. He looked a little _too comfortable_ sitting on the brown carpeted floor with his long legs laid out in front of him. The warmth of the classroom from the school's heating system kicking in probably also made him feel _extra cozy_ right where he was. 

_He's not staying here. Not after I had to look all over the place to find him._

Entering the room she slowly walked towards him but kept in mind to only stop at a safe distance from him. Even being alone with him in the same room again was nerve-wracking but she didn't let it show. 

She was in perfect control of her breathing and expression even if she was mentally cringing at having him in front of her once more. The memory of his attack had the side of her neck aching even though the wound was gone thanks to Reiji _force feeding_ her his potions. 

Shuu only stared at her with a annoyed expression before closing his eyes and sighing as if she was the only one acting like a child. 

"You should have just left in the limo without me."

Not knowing if she should tell him that she couldn't exactly leave without him, Hannah crossed her arms and dryly asked, "Could you please return with me to the mansion?" 

Responding to him with question was the only thing she could do. She didn't know if Shuu was in on whatever bullshit Reiji was doing. The less information she gave, the better. She could never be to careful around all of them. 

Or so she had thought until he had opened his eyes again to stare at her without uttering a word. The empty quality of his gaze was chilling to her. No wonder she had that damned doll dream again after so many years. His eyes were just like the pretty and expressionless glass as that loathsome doll's eyes had been. 

Her shoulders, unbeknownst to her, tensed while he studied her face quietly. She wanted to run the instant his gaze finally moved away from her face to slowly look down her chest and then her legs. It was like he was _touching_ her with his stare. 

The appearance of a humorless little smirk that lifted the corners his lips made heat rise to her cheeks. She wasn't all that experienced with boys. Hell she had zero experience with boys. But she knew he had something going inside his head that she didn't like judging by how he'd eyed her body curiously. 

"Did you come here to seduce me as some twisted game of his...?" his question had her arching one of her eyebrows. She was getting the impression that he was talking about someone else that wasn't even Reiji. 

"I don't know what you're talking about," she answered frankly but his smirk only widened. 

"You lie...," there was a tinge of humor in his quiet tone. She should have just gone in the limo and have dealt with whatever bullshit punishment Reiji had in store for her instead of talking to Shuu. 

"I'm not lying at all-" 

"Then why are you here, all alone, wanting me to go back with you...?" Shuu's questioning was literally making her feel cornered. Hannah now understood that he could easily make her come clean about Reiji putting her completely under his control. 

_Damn him. I preferred it when he acted like a corpse._

This vampire was just as observant as his younger sibling. His questions were accusing her of something in order to get her to admit to what he wanted to know. It was already obvious that he knew she was hiding something from him. 

"I only want to return to the mansion."

She should have been more careful in choosing her words. His eyes, though so expressionless, showed that he now knew the mess she was in without her needing to be questioned further. He let her see _that_ much of his thinking. 

"Ah so that's what it is, huh...?" Hannah's whole body stiffened when he spoke again. 

_I should have kept my mouth shut._

"What will you do for me if I go with you...?" Hannah paled at how Shuu had just turned the situation on her. Just as she had been fearing he had taken control of their conversation with only a few simple questions. That was _all_ it truly took him.

Confusing her into making a mistake by just using his words. 

"You'll have your room and your bed. Sleeping on the floor is uncomfortable, so you'll have that at least," her voice was clear and he only wordlessly looked up at her as she answered. Even though he was unmoving on the floor, he still managed to intimidate her. 

_Please just take that, God damn it_., closing her eyes, she waited with feigned patience, hoping that the vampire would be lured by the thought of somewhere more comfortable to sleep on. 

"Will you be there with me?" 

"Huh?" snapping her eyes open again to look down at him, she noted his lazy knowing smirk was back. 

"Will you go to bed with me to _help_ me sleep... ?" he asked again, explaining further what he truly meant. 

_Is he fucking kidding me?,_ some of her anger must have appeared in her sharp stare because he gave a soft snort before closing his eyes.

"How disappointing. I would have expected you to entertain me in exchange for me calling the limo to come pick us up...," he whispered tiredly, obviously already done speaking with her. 

_Of all the manipulative shit!,_ she wasn't even going to bother hiding her glare anymore. Hannah doubted he even cared that she was pissed off as long as she let him sleep on the floor. 

"I won't go to bed with you," the steadiness in her words had him looking up at her boredly with that all too seeing stare of his. 

This was the first time she'd actually had a conversation with the guy. Most of the time he was either asleep or complaining about too much noise. He had taken her blood once already but even then she hadn't gotten a good idea of how he truly was. 

Until now. 

Shuu was perfectly fine with staying where he was at her expense or downright _humiliating_ her for just trying to get him to do something as simple as returning to the mansion. 

Shivering inwardly, she met his stare unblinkingly. It was a lose-lose situation. No matter what she chose, she'd still lose one way or the other. 

"That's such a shame. I guess your friend will just be alone with my brothers until next evening." 

It took a lot of effort to hide her sheer disbelief. The guy was straightforward with his manipulation. He knew that either way she had to decide on something that she wouldn't like and he couldn't have cared less on the matter. 

"I really need to get back to the mansion as soon as possible-" 

"If you truly wanted to go so badly you wouldn't have wasted both our times arguing with me... ," he quietly cut off her words with finality. It was faint but she could tell he was getting annoyed with her judging by edge of his voice. 

"So you expect me to have sex with you in order to return?!" her voice rose and his eyes widened a fraction at her sudden loudness. He was probably irritated by her nearly shouting that out but his stubbornness had pushed her dangerously close to her breaking point. 

"Who said anything about having sex...? I only asked if you were going to sleep with me when we got back. Pervert...," he chuckled out and Hannah felt her face heat up. 

It was official... Hannah was really starting to fucking hate this guy just as much as she hated Reiji. She would have been content _never_ speaking to the vampire slouching on the floor before her again. 

"Just sleep...?" she asked lowly, ignoring the fact that she was probably red-faced because of his frustrating word play. Even her neck was hot with barely contained embarrassment with his joking around. The guy knew she was completely in his hands now. 

He stayed quiet for a couple of tense moments as if considering her question. If only he'd just get his stupid teasing over with so she could go back to the mansion. 

"I've changed my mind..." 

_What...?,_ narrowing her eyes in suspicion she waited for him to finish. 

"If you do what I want here, then I might call for the limo after all...," he was sounding almost bored of speaking to her. His blue eyes were even becoming more hazy with growing drowsiness. 

_The last thing I need is for him to fall asleep again..._

"Then what is it that you want now?" she forced the question out, already hating how he had played with her that whole time. 

More silence. He was so quiet that she suspected he was sleeping with his eyes partly open. 

When he finally spoke again, his 'answer' only made her frustration and nervousness increase again. 

"Come closer." 

Not really wanting to be closer to him than she already was, it took Hannah a lot of mental convincing to take one single step forward. His tired stare showed a threatening flash of irritation at her actions. 

_He said 'come closer' but he didn't ever say_ how _much._

Shuu was clearly getting tired of teasing her and his annoyance was becoming more evident than before with her continued stubbornness. There was an unseen tension in the room with how his eyes slightly glared at her in warning for not doing exactly as he had wanted. 

Realizing this Hannah pressed her lips together tightly and took her time in approaching him slowly until reaching his side so that her feet were now alongside his own. Every single one of her movements was forced by just that look in his eyes. 

_Now he can just grab me again_. 

But he didn't reach out for her. She didn't know if this should bother her or not. So far Shuu had shown her an unpredictable side that she was beginning to loathe. 

His intent felt like a cold draft on her face without him actually doing anything to her. With her face practically stinging under his stare she now understood that the vampire was obviously toying with the tension to see _more_ of what she was hiding. 

"Get on top of me...," shocked by his whispered command, Hannah looked down at him to see if he was just teasing her again. 

To her dismay, the asshole was serious as he gazed back at her, waiting for her to do as she was told. His once sleepy disinterest eyes had the tiniest hints of wakefulness that warned her that he wasn't as tired as he had let on.

All of his focus was on her now. 

"If you won't do it, you can always find a corner to sleep on during the day..." 

_This fucking prick._

Hating him now, she felt sickened when moving her feet until she was standing over his body with her feet on either side of him. He only watched her apathetically as if she weren't doing anything he hadn't seen before. 

_Let's get this shit over with and hope he's satisfied. I've been here too long as it is._

Holding a hand over the front of her school skirt so he won't accidentally see underneath it, Hannah sat down. She wasn't on his lap but on his thighs. There was no way in hell she was positioning her crotch directly over his. The last thing she had wanted to do with this guy was to straddle his legs but it was better than pressing other parts of their lower bodies together. 

Closing her eyes, she held herself stifly on top of him, trying hard to suppress a shudder at how cold the top of his thighs were under her. She had expected him to be softer underneath her but his thighs were both cold and hard. 

The back of her own thighs tensed at the unnatural temperature that was pressed against them when sitting on him. The heating system of the classroom couldn't even make his icy vampire skin warm. 

_Humans aren't this cold..._

Not getting any response from him, she braved opening her eyes to look at him. This was the closest she had ever been to his face. Now the close proximity had her notice the nonhuman smoothness of his white skin and how irritatingly _pretty_ he was. The vampire's obvious attractiveness was almost offending her. Even his slightly curling blond hair falling over his forehead was pissing her off. 

He didn't even have any visible pores or signs of stubble or a pimple in sight like any _normal_ teenaged boy should have. His prettiness was unnatural and she was guessing that his appearance was only just a facade for vampires in general. In spite of being all assholes, each of the Sakamaki brothers had that same fake otherworldly attractiveness to them.

They drew attention everywhere they went because of their too perfect looks. Even Shuu that was barely seen in the school was well known because of it. Most of the people that had helped her find him had been other girls. 

_Why isn't he saying or doing anything?,_ he hadn't made a move to touch her. In fact his arms were limp at his sides as if they were too heavy for him to do something as simple as grabbing her. She could now hear a soft melancholic tune drifting from his earbuds that seemed to be permanently attached to his ears. 

"Unbelievable...," he finally smirked emotionlessly once her questioning eyes met his. "You truly are a pervert. Are you going to ravish me next?" 

_He... He just told me to do this shit!_

Widening her eyes in fury, she didn't waste time getting off him. His endless fucked up teasing had gotten her pissed off to all new levels. 

Walking angrily away from him, she headed towards the open doorway of the classroom. _Fuck everything_. This vampire was an annoying asshole that had made her waste too much time with his bullshit. He wasn't even trying to stop her from leaving because he was perhaps inwardly _laughing_ at just how he'd gotten her to do that. 

Being so near _any_ of the vampires disgusted her and he'd convinced her to get closer than she ever wanted. She _hated_ being in such close contact with other people. Even accidental touching from bumping into someone made her uncomfortable and he'd... He had gotten her to practically _sit_ on him just so she could go back to the mansion. This stranger, _a vampire_ , had managed to do all of that in such a short period of time. 

_Yui has been alone during all of this. Alone with that other asshole Reiji._

Furious with herself she only paused in the doorway briefly when she heard his softly murmuring behind her. 

"... _We'll be waiting downstairs...,"_

Surprised that Shuu had actually kept his side of the bargain regardless of how he'd toyed with her, she clenched her jaw hard until it ached before stepping out into the hall. She was already done with him and she didn't see a point in sticking around longer than she already had. 

He obviously even had a phone on him too which was a piece of information she mentally noted for later use. 

_He had controlled me this whole time. Like a fucking puppet_., disgust turned her stomach. The heat on her face finally faded the further she got away from those empty classrooms on the third floor. If she were lucky he'd be too slow getting downstairs and she would ride the limo back in blissful solitude. 

He wasn't even following her as she walked away. It was not like she expected that from him. The guy clearly didn't find it necessary to apologize or explain himself, much less move around more than he felt like. 

_That prick had mentioned Yui so he definitely knew that I only wanted to return because of her and he'd_ controlled _me because of it.,_ Shuu had proven himself to be even more conniving than Reiji himself. Only the most insensitive douchebag would take advantage of someone else's worry like that. 

If she hadn't forced herself to just walk away she would have just cursed him out for all his manipulative crap earlier. That would have made her irreversibly fuck up because she knew the vampire could be quite dangerous. 

_Reiji has really fucked me over... This guy is not going to be easy to deal with._

While one brother threatened her into being stuck with the other, the other could control her himself. Shuu had already gotten too much of her while in that classroom. He had found out things she hadn't wanted known. 

She was being imprisoned without being inside an actual jail cell. Yui was the only bait keeping her there. Both Shuu and Reiji had found her Achille's heel in just a few days of living with them at the mansion.

Her protective shield had been effectively shattered by both of those brothers in just three days. As pathetic as it was, Shuu had seen right through her when truly speaking with her for the first time. 

It was depressing. Walking through the hallways in an empty school she could easily escape from and still not being able to was the ultimate defeat for Hannah. Along with that failure was the knowledge that a bastard she had believed was ignorant of the world around him, had somehow gotten her to give all that information away. 

Shuu now had figured out how he could get her to do whatever he wanted and that's what truly got under skin. 

He had been _testing_ her and she had failed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was kinda meh imo. Don't mind me I'm always unsatisfied with every single thing I write. It's a personal problem I always have. (my writing is rusty asf that's what it is... And I've been trying to learn Brazilian Portuguese since my ass got lost in my damn new neighborhood. I'm still embarrassed as hell 😩) 
> 
> Anyways, lmfaoooo, I forgot how funny it is to write Hannah's pov in full anger mode. She tried to keep her cool here but just finding out how much of a douchebag Shuu can be had her about to snap. This was humiliating for the poor girl. With Laito, he at least did shit to her but this time around with Shuu he just shamed her despite him manipulating her into doing it and he didn't even need to have sex with her to do it. 
> 
> It was interesting to have Shuu being able to read Hannah and get under her skin better than Laito did. Laito got so frustrated with Hannah during ITS that he went psychotic just to get reactions out of her. (Don't worry tho... Hannah has learned her lesson with this chapter tho... Those lessons might not work for her. She can't predict Shuu yet like she did with Laito) 
> 
> Oooh... I wonder how Yui is doing rn? As Hannah said... She's been alone with Reiji during this whole mess. Poor girl did kind of mess up. I bet some of y'all were expecting Reiji to threaten her into choosing him but alas, the girl chose him on her own. That explains the title of this chapter quite nicely. 
> 
> PS: yes there's a reason Subaru had targeted Hannah the first night. It isn't romantic but it will be revealed later in the story.
> 
> (sorry if my username is confusing but I'm always changing my names to the same stuff as my Twitter accounts and then I get bored asf with them) 
> 
> Please leave a kudos and/or review it you enjoyed.
> 
> If you look down in the comments, you'll see I added "deleted" scenes in cos I didn't feel they fit and that they were redundant in the chapter. Besides that if I kept them in this chapter would have been ridiculously long.


	12. Awakened Senses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reiji loses his shit in here. So some whipping, some blood, some blasphemy and intimidation.
> 
> PS: Shuu is awake, annoyed and horny but is too lazy to fap to fix his issue.
> 
> This chapter is basically establishing their thoughts on the girls.

Yui was sitting perfectly still in front of Reiji in his study in what he already knew was misleading obedience. Her fear while being alone with him was so strong that he could hear her heart pounding furiously. 

The girl was understandably nervous with good reason. She, after all, had gone against him _twice_ in just one night since choosing him.

Before leaving school she had paused too long in getting inside the limo, murmuring some _foolishness_ about staying behind. That had only been the first irritating instance and he should have known that she would stubbornly persist in her thoughtless urge to stay behind for her vulgar friend from that moment forward. 

_"Could you stop the limo?"_ the mere question she had asked softly once they were halfway to the mansion later on had been the second offense. And that offense was only made worse when she attempted to argue with him about not allowing her to return to the academy. He had seen the fear mingling with anger in those annoyingly innocent eyes of hers during the whole pointless exchange.

She had _known_ she did wrong and yet she had continued on as if to jab at his irritation. 

As he had surmised from early on, Yui Komori was indeed as graceless as a lump of black coal. All edges that could crumble at the lightest squeeze but still had the potential to be ignited. 

It would have been an admirable trait... Among humans. But for vampires, seeing as she was a weaker more inferior species, it was downright insulting. Over the years he had studied humans like the animals they were, he had concluded that they were simplistic dumb creatures that allowed their emotions to rule them. 

The girl before him was a living testament of that undeniable fact. 

Being so dismally flawed due to her being some weak minded mortal didn't mean she couldn't be trained on how to behave. _Some_ mortals could be molded to near perfection with the proper training. And it was always only _near_ perfection because humans always remained so unfortunately flawed regardless of how much they practiced self-betterment. 

She had no excuse for those two previous acts of rebellion. Even a _dog_ would have known better than to go against their master. Yui should have known at least that much despite her unfortunate human condition. 

_I suppose I will have to start her training tonight. She has given me no other choice on the matter_. 

Fully aware of her mistakes, Reiji could see how Yui paled under the frosty stare he sent her way before his focus returned to the folder full of documents he held in his hands. The way the blood slowly drained from her face was amusing in a way and it did give him the tiny stirrings of hope for remedying the flaws of her existence. 

She wasn't shivering or crying but other physical signs of fear were present in her. With his heightened senses, all humans were unable to hide such signs. Despite her brave front, he could still hear the frantic beating of her heart and smell the cold sweat forming over her pale skin. 

Yui was terribly frightened while waiting for him to finally speak. That wasn't the only thing that had stoked her fear. He could feel her gaze going from him to the riding crop he had placed in front of him on top of his desk as soon as she had arrived to his study for private instruction. 

He would have smiled if it weren't for him wanting to show her the error of her ways. Being unreadable worked in making her more deliciously nervous about his plans for her. 

"It says here that you have below average grades in Biology, Mathematics and English," he could literally hear how her heart lurched within her small chest when he finally spoke after the long tense silence between them. B minuses and C minuses might be passable by human standards but for him, they were _nowhere_ near acceptable. 

She didn't reply to his statement and he looked at her sharply in order to prompt her to explain herself. 

"Um... I've never been good with foreign languages or...," she trailed off, looking down at her hands on her lap that were twisting the unfortunate fabric of her school uniform's skirt in her nervousness. 

Narrowing his eyes at that anxious little action, Reiji made a mental note to _beat_ that annoying habit of hers in the future. This wasn't the first time she'd done it. He suspected that she wasn't even aware of the many times she did that around him. 

"I see...," no, he in fact, didn't. English was a sickeningly simple language and mathematics was easy enough to even be a pleasant pastime. Basic biology was child's play with it's study of living organisms. 

These weren't university level subjects that should give this girl such difficulty. Even Ito's class qualifications were disgustingly outstanding having her only fail in class participation. It was quite frustrating to see that the other girl had good grades when he had expected her to be even more of a _disappointment_ than Yui in her education. 

_Average in etiquette, A plus in social studies and history...,_ he raised his brows upon reading those in her school qualifications. If anything Yui was _below_ average in etiquette with how much noise she made cutting meat at the dinner table and the way she held her eating utensils although he had to give her credit in knowing which utensils to use with each different dish. 

"You do surprisingly well in history and even religious studies," it was a factual comment based on simple observation. He was curious as to why she would have such dismal grading for three subjects yet was passing with flying colors in specific ones. 

"I like history. And religious studies are for...," her words faltered again under his stare. 

_How irritating._

"For what?" he asked flatly, letting her know he didn't care much for her hesitant replies. Just because she was a weak human didn't mean she would have to speak so meekly around him. In fact it annoyed him as much as the persistent cloth wringing she did on her skirt. 

"I...," she pressed her lips together as if doubting if she should reveal whatever reasons she hid. "I want to become a nun." 

Just when he believed he had figured out the seemingly ordinary girl, she had to go and surprise him. She was clearly firm in her conviction, telling him that she was determined with her ridiculous choice in vocation. 

Eyeing her carefully, he vaguely recalled the nuns that worked for the church that regularly supplied him and his brothers with brides. He had gone to the church himself in one past occasion out of morbid curiosity to see from what place the misfortunate girls came from. 

It had all been just a part of his study of the animals known as mortals.   
  
The nuns hadn't been impressive in the slightest to him. They were dour-faced women that were shriveled and dry on the inside from their constant hours of kneeling in hypocritical prayer and solitude. Even now he couldn't imagine Yui Komori living such a life although he could briefly picture her wearing the black habits and slowly having the innocence in her eyes go dull. 

With such a ridiculous routine of faithfulness to the fictional being humans called "God", the girl would have her girlishness slowly rotting away within her until she was an embittered shell of a woman. For some odd reason Reiji found that possibility distasteful. 

"What an absurd job aspiration," the words left his mouth coldly and immediately a familiar rebelliousness appeared in her eyes. That look that said bluntly that she was indeed not made for such a life goal. The girl, albeit lacking proper training, was a little too _lively_ for such work. He was, in his own way, being considerate of her. 

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to serve God," the slight frown on her small face had him staring at her with already disinterested disregard. 

"It's of no concern of mine what you've made yourself believe, Yui-san. I just wish for you to be aware of your current predicament and how such an aspiration is now out of your reach," he didn't need to explain his reasoning yet he only elaborated in order to silence her idiotic arguing. 

She glared at him in that laughable manner of hers. He was again reminded of a furious kitten with how her girlish features hardened. 

Closing the folder in his hands, he settled it over his desk, already having seen what he had needed to know of his 'bride' . He ignored how her breath hitched in apprehension when he slowly picked up the riding crop beside the now discarded folder. Reiji knew of the 'training' the nuns gave in her previous 'school' so she probably had ample knowledge about what the riding crop was for. 

Resting his back on his high backed seat, he eyed her thoughtfully again while caressing the tip of the crop with his fingertips. To her he might have seemed as a vampire deep in thinking during his leisure. Which indeed he was because he was truly measuring her worth. 

"As of tomorrow, I want you in my study after dinner to start tutoring for these dismal grades you have," her eyes widened but she wisely didn't talk back to him like she had done repeatedly in the past. 

"You will be careful in all interactions with my brothers. Do not allow them to touch you under any circumstances," she frowned in confusion over that rule but Reiji never liked having his possessions touched. And the girl was indeed now _his_ after she had chosen him, whether she liked it or not. 

He wouldn't have intimidated her into thinking only of him when choosing if he had wanted her to choose otherwise. Reiji knew of his effect on her and that her decision to pick him had been out of fear because of how too aware she'd been under his scrutiny hours earlier. 

"You will endeavor to correct your table manners unless you wish to be retrained on proper dinner conduct as well as in your studies," he waited for her to speak in agreement and seeing that the girl was speechless he narrowed his eyes at her to let her know that she should agree.

"Yes, Reiji-san."

At least she had enough cognition to understand what he wanted of her from his stare.

"You will not question me in any decisions I make regarding you or your extracurricular activities. Not only do I expect you to be well-behaved in school, but that extends to the mansion as well."

"Yes, Reiji-san," her voice was softer than before. It was starting to lack that irritating uncertainty. Yes, she was slowly accepting her new life and it's rules.

"You are only to speak when spoken to and I will not tolerate any stuttering from you when doing so," this was of the upmost importance. He did enjoy her fear but her hesitation in speaking clearly to him like a _proper lady_ should was becoming quite frustrating.

"Yes, Reiji-san."

Ah, even now she was getting trained. Her voice was becoming firmer. He hadn't even needed to use the crop to get her to obey. It was only small almost insignificant progress, but still progress nonetheless. 

_Although, I still need to punish her for her earlier behavior._

"About your deplorable behavior earlier," she straightened her back upon hearing him bringing up that particular subject. She had perhaps dreaded it coming to attention. If he hadn't forgotten her previous offenses, neither should she. 

This punishment was a necessity. In the future if she insisted on misbehaving, he might even graduate from the riding crop to a bull whip. The crop presently in his gloved hands was only used for gentle admonishments.

"... I wish for you to understand that such behavior does not go unpublished, Yui-san," her wide eyed stare left his to look grimly at the slim crop in his hands. It made him wonder how many times she had been punished in the boarding school with such a disciplinary device. 

"Lift the sleeve covering your right arm and place it on my desk," he ordered her calmly, expecting her to do as he had commanded. 

She unfortunately was still such a dumb undisciplined human. An extremely _disobedient_ one at that. The girl didn't move to do as she was told. 

"Yui-san, over time you'll learn that I do not like to repeat myself and that even my patience has it limits. Place your _arm_ on the desk," he ordered her again in a firmer tone to show that he wasn't about to let her have more leeway with him like in the past. 

He'd permitted it out in the hall when she had ran madly about looking for the Ito girl and as well as her rudeness in the school library, but on this night he would put a _stop_ to it. 

She trembled though she didn't display any fear. He instead saw anger contorting her features and it looked almost blasphemous to him in a way. Like it was an expression not suited for her face. 

Ignoring that train of thought he watched her expressionlessly as she unbuttoned one of the cuffs of her school uniform's sleeve and pushed up the cloth to her elbow, revealing a thin pale arm. 

Eyeing him warily, she scooted towards his desk, being obedient for once. Placing her pale arm on the surface of his desk, she was obviously tense and wishing for her punishment to be over, confirming Reiji's earlier suspicions of her indeed having been struck before in such a manner.

Seeing that she wasn't running away like previous brides in the past, he stood up from his seat and gently grabbed her wrist. She stiffened when the soft cloth of his glove covered fingers gripped her firmly before he turned her arm so that her vulnerable wrist would face upwards. 

He didn't want the welts to be too obvious. He would make certain that they'd be easily concealed under her uniform to not raise suspicions. 

"For your own good, Yui-san... You'd be wise to refrain from questioning my decisions again in the future," she shivered at his warning words with her stare only focused on her still unmarred skin. 

Pinning her wrist down on the desk to restrain her, Reiji struck her skin with a quick sharp flick. Soon enough that first strike of the crop resounding over her skin left a red welt on her upper arm as she gasped lowly. 

To Reiji that restrained sound wasn't good enough to please him. 

Studying her face, he struck her again and found it surprising that despite her obvious pain she didn't have tears in her eyes as he would have anticipated.

Looking back down at her quickly reddening skin, he made certain to strike her harder to finally get a decent reaction out of her. The next harsh flick on her arm sounded out louder than the last and she flinched in his grasp as if wanting to pull away.

That was more like it. Her punishment would be ineffective if she didn't feel pain. 

Squeezing her wrist tighter to keep her from escaping he passively continued on. 

"Reiji-san-!" he struck again upon hearing the pathetic sound of her voice.

 _Silly girl.,_ This was just discipline. Nothing more, nothing less. Some pain was the price for her misbehavior. 

The flesh of her thin wrist was pliant. He was perhaps bruising her with his grip as he punished her. With the more strikes and muffled cries from her, the more he could almost smell the blood coursing under her skin. Although his flicks weren't enough to cut her, they were still enough to mark her with the blood rush. Soon the pigmentation of her once pristine white flesh would be an angry shade of red after he was done. 

The paleness of her skin would be the color of her own blood. It would look like quite the _fetching_ reminder for her to stay in line. 

The scent of something very nauseatingly _sweet_ was began to gradually flood his study, making him subconsciously breath it in. Her heart pounding in pain and fear only helped make the mysterious scent even more overwhelming with each of his measured strikes. 

_Interesting...,_ the smell of it stirred something dormant within him. It was unusually arousing. Having that alluring fragrance now assaulting his nose was making him want to see her bleed just to make the scent strengthen. 

As the sounds of her crying pleas faded from his consciousness he started to hit her repeatedly with more ferocity. His strikes were still controlled but harsher in strength than he would usually use. 

It wasn't normal. As he punished the now sobbing girl, he hadn't even realized he'd broken out into a discomforting sweat and that his very fangs ached with an uncontrollable thirst. 

A part of his mind vaguely told him that he had exceeded in her punishment because of her blood's scent wafting from her abused flesh. That he was only continuing on because a more primitive side of him wanted to smell more of it rising to the surface so he could lick it off once it decorated her skin. 

_"Let me go!"_ her free hand suddenly shoved at his shoulder, jarring him out of his trance and he instantly released her arm as if scalded by it. She had perhaps been pushing at him for a long time without him realizing it. 

Yui rapidly stepped away from his desk and pulled her arm protectively to her chest. That sweet blood scent of hers was tainting the tip of his riding crop letting him know that he had indeed broken through her skin which hadn't been his original purpose. 

"Go to your room immediately," he ordered her tonelessly and was pleased to see that the girl left quickly without any hesitation. The strength of that saccharine smell of her unusual blood lessened greatly the instant she rushed out in her fright. 

Minutes passed by as he stood tensely looking at the door she had left opened in her escape. The effects of her blood took awhile in fading but once it did he took a deep breath and pushed up at his glasses with his trembling fingertips. They had slipped down over the bridge of his nose in his unexpected perspiration. 

Now he finally knew _why_ that girl came with instructions to be kept alive. Her blood didn't have the smell of an average human girl. There was something about the fragrance that seemed vaguely familiar to him although that remembered past scent had been tainted like rotten fruit.

Frustrated with himself for losing control doing something as simple as a punishment, Reiji tried to recall when he had last fed. He was always careful to keep himself well-fed even though his past recent meals left much to be desired and were unfulfilling. What else could he expect from the already jaded women he enticed with conversation in the downtown at night?

Blood these days was of low quality. With the increase of human made diseases created by their own filth, there was also a wealth of addictions and medications that made most blood taste revolting. 

_The full moon is only a week away.,_ That could explain the adverse reaction he'd just had. It was a reason that soothed him because he personally couldn't stand the thought that a mere girl like Yui Komori had made him lose his composure. 

Sitting back down on his seat, he relaxed under his false belief. He knew his reasoning was just a pointless form of self-assurance yet he allowed himself to believe it until he was finally back under control. 

_I wonder if that other girl is the same.,_ now more intrigued by the two new brides they were given than he'd care to admit, Reiji absent-mindedly ran his fingertips over the bloodstained tip of the crop he still hadn't let go of. 

Pulling his fingers away he coolly examined the rusty red of Yui's blood staining the whiteness of his gloves. It didn't look like anything out of the ordinary but it still carried some of her unexpectedly seductive scent although it was less overwhelming now with her gone. 

*****

 _That girl is being noisy again..._ , only two hours had passed since Shuu had returned with his unwanted bride to the mansion. The odd girl, Hannah, hadn't given him much trouble after he had called the limo to come pick them up. Surprisingly she had been quite silent on their way back when he had expected her to berate him or irritate him with endless chatter like other brides. 

However once back in the mansion... She was purposely _making_ noise. It was as if having Shuu out of her sight, had her wanting to make up for lost time by being disruptive in her own room a couple of doors down from his own. 

Normal things any human would do with minimal noises were done angrily in her room. The opening of drawers was done so harshly that he could hear the squeaking of wood at the force she used when putting her clothing away. Even her doing her homework was chaotic with how she kept throwing her textbooks, and snapping each page she turned.

Her writing away was also done with unnecessary loudness. Shuu could practically hear the angered scraping of the graphite tip of her pencil on paper. The girl was almost as loud as Subaru in his worse days which was quite a feat. 

And she was now unfortunately placed in _Shuu's_ side of the house. 

Opening his eyes tiredly, Shuu stared blankly at the shadows above him. He was lying on top of his messy bed still wearing his school uniform, with his ears ringing at her cacophony of sound. It was chaotic and unpleasant enough that he was becoming tempted to force himself into her newly assigned room to stop her immature little rebellion. 

Turning on his music, he went for the highest volume his earbuds could muster and even that didn't help him ignore the irritating girl. Her noises joined in with the melody of Bramhs streaming from his earbuds and he couldn't help frowning at how she still managed to interrupt the tune. 

It forcefully reminded him that she existed and that there was a world outside of his shadowy room. He would have thought that after all that had happened she would have been wiser in not waking him up, but unfortunately for him the girl was letting her once concealed anger from school be known. 

Reiji's plotting in this was so laughably obvious. His younger brother might have believed he was subtle in his scheming but Shuu had been fully aware of what he was doing in threatening that girl to be his bride. 

Since the moment after Reiji had left him sleeping in the wrecked room he had bitten the girl in, Shuu had known. 

Trying desperately to sleep didn't mean he was exactly dead to the world surrounding him. Shuu _wished_ he was yet the more he tried to shut it out, the more he became aware of every tiny annoying thing. It always interrupted his sleep like a mocking sort of curse placed upon him. 

Thinking of his unwanted bride now also reminded him of the events that had already passed in that night. His tired mind went over the details in an pathetic effort to ignore her noises mixing in with his music. 

Her expressionless act had irritated him hours earlier. This was something he wouldn't deny. That girl's unnatural control over her features had frustrated him for a brief moment and that was what pushed him to want to shatter that outward facade. 

For a split second when she had looked down on him in that classroom and had asked him to leave with her, Shuu had seen something in her gaze that was nearly imperceptible.

She had reminded him of _Reiji_. How ironic that Reiji had developed a grudge for a girl that was exactly like him. 

Mustering a faint smirk, Shuu wondered if Reiji knew just how much him and that girl were alike. His brother was obviously hostile towards her for some unknown reason, yet Shuu had noted that perhaps it was because both him and the girl were quite similar.

Reiji maybe even _despised_ seeing himself reflected in a human. 

She was more similar to a vampire than a mortal. At the school Shuu had even suspected briefly that she must have some vampire ancestry because he'd never seen a human girl exert so much forced calm that even her heartbeat didn't give her fear away. 

It was of no matter. Dhampirs were extremely rare and he doubted that the church would house one, much less give one to his family. People born between a human and vampire were deeply frowned down upon by most vampires though Shuu had never cared for what vampire society deemed as acceptable. 

As her noises continued from further down the hall, other thoughts of what had happened inside that forgotten classroom came to his mind.

Shuu felt himself immediately hardening between his legs. It had been weeks since he'd been with someone. To his annoyance, he was now becoming uncomfortably hard inside his school pants. The increasing tightening of the cloth over his stiffening flesh was making him see that annoying girl more vividly in his memories. 

The girl had tried to be as unarousing as possible when sitting on his lap. He had only told her to do it to see if she would desist trying to get him to leave with her and yet she had surprised him. Her unexpected actions had made him see that she could be manageable if he knew just how to _use_ her. 

The image of her sitting on him with her thighs straddling him had been erotic despite her stiff posture above him. When she had closed her eyes, he had looked over her to see how the cloth of her skirt had risen up over her pale thighs and had felt that feminine heat between her legs almost searing him. She kept herself covered the best she could with her hand holding down the front of her skirt, yet in his mind the defensiveness of her act had made her look like she was _pleasuring_ herself on top of him. 

Despite her behaving too innocently, Shuu had found the image of her obscene. It had tempted him and made him have a physical reaction that she hadn't gotten to see for herself due to her rapidly standing up and leaving him in such a pitiful aroused state. 

He had felt the urge to grab her then. To order her around to do more for him and see how far she would go. She had been under his control and he could have ordered her to be like other girls in his past. 

Shuu was aware of how convincing he could be. Had he wanted to toy with her more, he could have talked her into moving the crotch of her underwear to the side to coax her into taking him inside of her.

But he had held himself back. A girl that cold and stubborn would probably had resisted too much on her first night. He wasn't into struggles and loud screaming like his brothers were. It didn't have anything to with morals... It was just that it would be too much work for him. The only times he enjoyed such a thing was if he was angered to his own limits or overcome by thirst on a full moon. 

Once he was pushed too far, he made the one on the receiving end of his anger regret it. He made certain they wouldn't forget it and after they had learned their lesson he could finally sleep again knowing that they were no longer going to be troublesome for him. 

Despite Reiji's judgement, Shuu didn't seduce girls on the daily basis. He only did it when the opportunity arose and the girls sought him out themselves with some foolish romantic notions about him. 

He let them do whatever they wished with him. Even murmured encouragement for them to do as they pleased because he knew he'd get something out of it in the end, whether it was blood or the release of sex. 

Even former brides had been no different than the girls in the academy. In the past, those brides would naively seek out his bed to hide from his brothers. They'd reek of being used multiple times by his siblings and they'd think he would be _different_ because of how disinterested he was. 

Those encounters over the years had still been opportunities for him to get what he wanted easily. He would gently touch them, arouse them and they would predictably give in. Unfortunately, just like the school girls, they always ended up believing that he was 'different' and that he would protect them from the rest of his brothers. 

How annoying it was whenever they expected that of him. He wasn't some considerate protector. He doubted that even if he attempted to be some ridiculous white knight for a bride, he'd even be good at it and the whole affair seemed like too effort for nothing. 

Protecting another could always end up in failure so what was the purpose for him to even attempt doing it for someone else? 

He wasn't suited to protect _anyone_ and he was perfectly fine with that. As long as he got blood and occasional sex, whatever the brides felt on the matter was of no consequence to him. Just imagining himself _caring_ enough for someone again... 

Shuu stopped himself from thinking further on the subject. He didn't want to think of _it_ or remember _it_ but once in awhile it would come back to him and would make him _feel_ too much. 

Attachments would only complicate things for him and would make him be too active in a life he didn't even want. Even in the darkness of his room, the knowledge that he now had a bride to himself didn't change his stance on the matter. 

Normally him and his brothers would _share_ the brides. This was the first time brides were allowed to choose only one of them to take their blood. This was something new yet Shuu didn't see how it should change the way of things had always been. 

Things would remain comfortable and impersonal. 

His brothers will probably salivate after that his 'bride' and would eventually attack her themselves one day. Soon she'd probably come crawling willingly into his bed looking for comfort just like every other girl had done in the past, _reeking_ of overuse and still bloodied fang marks like them. She would seek him out for that and he'd _use_ her just like she believed she could _use_ him. 

It was a routine. All brides would think giving him sex would give them an advantage in the house. In fact when he had seen his unwanted 'bride' surprisingly going into that empty classroom he had been resting in earlier, his first thought had been that this was precisely what she was after. 

And he had been wrong. The girl, though she hid her emotions well, had been frustratingly honest in her confusion. That didn't stop him from _accusing_ her because he still knew it was all a matter of time before she did seduce him herself. 

_All_ women were the same. It was a fact Shuu had been aware of for years since him and his brothers had started receiving brides from the church. 

_That woman has stopped._ , the noises keeping him awake had finally come to an end. That furious girl had probably exhausted herself in her raging. The complete absence of noise from her room could only mean she was finally asleep. 

Turning on his side, Shuu allowed his tense body to relax and sink further into his mattress even though his eyes remained slightly open. 

He still had some of that annoying hardness inside his pants, though it was far lesser than before. Thinking of the very _available_ and still _untouched_ bride so close to his room had seemed to have put him in that condition. The girl was now in a way _his_ because she was threatened into being his bride.

Moving around and even _attempting_ to sleep with his body in such a state would have been near impossible with that aching. He had almost begun to feel pain because of it. 

Shuu was starting to resent the now quiet girl even if he had been the one to tell her to get on top of him in the first place. If she hadn't done it, he wouldn't have that bothersome thing unwilling to go down and he definitely didn't feel like going through the work of fixing it himself. 

Forcing his eyes closed, he reached out to the bulge and squeezed it with one of his hands. He slightly winced at how sensitive he still was. He might as well be a virgin again judging by his reaction. 

If he stroked himself enough a couple of times over his pants, he would finish inside of them quickly. It would be messy and then he'd be stuck with his cooling semen that would later dry and harden enough to uncomfortably stick his sex to his underwear. Having to clean that mess up just to avoid that kind of inconvenience made him give up on the idea of taking care of it altogether. 

Breathing in deeply, he could smell his pillow under his head. The stale reek of his pillowcase helped him further forget about the effect that girl had on him.

Reiji didn't allow servants to go into his room on the regular basis because of some forgettable nonsense about Shuu 'needing to take responsibility' for his own dwellings. Not being the neatest in their household meant that Shuu allowed his room to become untidy. He wouldn't bother changing his sheets, much less picking up his clothes from the floor unless he was going to use them again.

The accumulated mess usually didn't bother him. He had slept in worse places yet now his sheets had a combination of all the places he'd been to for almost the past month. 

The current smell of his sheets had been the reason why he hadn't been sleeping in his own room for the past week, preferring to sleep in one of the mansion's many halls or in a dusty unused room. 

Vampires didn't generate as many body odors as humans did but that didn't stop smells from all the places he had been to in his sleep from clinging to his clothes. With not changing his clothes when going to bed, those same smells would transfer to his sheets giving it this stench. 

_Reiji must have given that girl clean sheets...,_ he knew his brother had some personal rules about forced hospitality with 'guests' that also included their brides. Reiji was a little more generous towards humans than he was towards Shuu himself. He didn't doubt for a moment that while he was stuck with his smelly sheets in his messy room, that girl was sleeping with freshly washed linen. 

His younger brother's animosity towards him had never been a secret to him. He made it obvious in his snide remarks and judgement. On one occasion one of his meals had even been poisoned by said younger brother. He had known about the poison after he flatly ordered a past bride to eat the food herself because of her frustrating attempts to get him to eat it. 

After that Shuu had refused to eat a single bite during dinner, not like he'd ever been interested in human meals before. The food could decay in front of him for all he cared and since it wasn't even a necessary sustenance he wasn't obligated to consume it. 

He wasn't willing enough to give Reiji that satisfaction. 

Moving around his bed to be more comfortable despite the smell from his pillow, Shuu was relieved to no longer feel his pants so frustratingly tight. Thinking of his brother had chased away the last of his arousal regarding the rebellious girl down the hallway. 

He still, however, couldn't forget about the possibility of her having clean sheets on her bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT NOTICE: I probably won't be able to update for awhile due to going on vacation with my family. You can find me at my tumblr or Twitter tho I'll have my tumblr on queue until I'm back. You can find these in my profile!
> 
> Jfc Reiji needs a chill pill (y'all know he's pretty much using Yui as his whipping boy now) , and Shuu is so detached that he mostly calls Hannah "that girl" in his mind and only sees her useful for sex, wtf. 
> 
> This chapter is pretty much foreshadowing shit that will start to happen. The boys are going to get serious now.
> 
> Also Yui is a good student, it's just that Reiji is such a dang perfectionist. (don't worry she'll have excellent grades after he starts his shit. She's terrified of him now more than before).  
> And his theory that she was "disciplined" before to show such submissive behavior (until he snapped) is also something that will come up later. Yes Yui has a bit of a past herself but that don't mean she's entirely submissive about everything. She will fight for other things and trust me, there will be other things. 
> 
> Before anyone asks about Reiji's observations about Yui's blood... The only one with Cordelia's heart is still Yui. Hannah is something else, so her blood, tho different, isn't like Yui's at all.
> 
> Besides that I think the best person to be Eve is Yui herself. Cos of the experiment to make a new species, the mother of said new species should have an empathic personality that could overwhelm the cold cruel vampiric one of the father of said new species in my eyes.
> 
> What Yui has seen as personality flaws in the past chapters are what make her the best Eve. Just saying cos fr, she's the opposite of cruelty. 
> 
> While Hannah, like Shuu had been guessing, has personality traits more similar to a vampire (so she isn't Eve material. She does have more humanity than the boys do tho she's a bitch where they're concerned. If you've read In The Shadows you'd know that her dislike for vampires is pretty much innate.) Sorry for rambling, y'all. 
> 
> PS: haven't some of y'all noticed that one of my story tags says Masochist Reiji? 👀
> 
> Please give a review and/or kudos if you liked and thanks to all keeping track of this story despite me constantly fixing it. (this also goes to my haters spying on my story too, lol. Yeah ppl do tattle on you guys too. Not like that will stop me from writing) 😘👍


	13. Tease

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter written for Kris (who's the requester that wanted this fic for Shuu and Hannah in the first place as an apology for taking so long in an update 😭)
> 
> Warnings for: trolling Shuu, Hannah's potty mouth and voyeurism.

Anger can warm the skin. It can rush through your veins and make your skin flush as if you had been standing outside under the sun on a hot summer day. 

Hannah had fallen asleep pissed off. It was now a natural occurrence for her. Before coming there, her nights were mostly cold and unfeeling. A routine of ending just another day as some other girl without a family living in the boarding school... But now, she was falling asleep with the deeply seeded emotions of rage and helplessness. 

She didn't mind it. The anger about their situation could help her remain sharp on what to do next. She could be watchful of hidden opportunities because she would never let her guard down around any of these vampires. Especially the one that turned out unpredictable on her the night before at the school by actually talking her into his perverted nonsense. 

The only things that had gone her way on that night was that the asshole blond had truly gotten the limo for them after his little game and after that... He had pretended she didn't exist which she did in return for him. 

It had almost been too fucking comfortable. Sitting there in the quiet limo with Shuu just across from her with his eyes closed and his features relaxed as he dozed off on their way back to the mansion had been oddly soothing. But she had been tense the whole time. 

She had forced herself to remain quietly vigilant inside that enclosed space with the silent vampire. All he had done was listen to his endless stream of downright depressing music that softly hummed out of his earbuds just loud enough for her to hear its faint melodious strings. 

And he had slept as if she were no danger to him which unfortunately was true at least for the time being. She knew how deceptively strong he was when he wasn't being lazy. The lethargic calmness that Shuu appeared to exude came from his immobility and lack of interest in her when he decided to dismiss her from his thoughts but she wouldn't be fooled by his act anymore. 

After the limo ride, they had split their separate ways once inside the mansion. Shuu walked in his slow sluggish manner to his room while Hannah did what she had wanted to do all along. 

Find Yui to see if she was alright. They had been separated for hours due to Reiji's stupid rules for Hannah while Shuu, the lazy ass vampire that wasn't as lazy as she had first assumed, had made her waste even more time with his random sleep locations and sick game with her. 

Hannah's cheeks still flushed red with rage upon remembering how he had gotten her to do that with him. The only thing she could be thankful for was that he hadn't gone further although... During the brief moments she had been on his lap she had sensed something hot when he had stared at her with his eerie empty gaze. As if the intent was there but that he held himself back just to silently observe her intensely with that sloth-like ease of his. 

It was only a matter of time before he decided to stop just looking at her. He would soon grow tired of it and would do something irreversible to her. That was something all too clear to her despite her inexperience with boys. 

She didn't know much about boys or men for that matter and even though Shuu was still in high school, he wasn't just another boy. He was a vampire and could potentially be far older than he appeared to be. She guessed he was at least physically in his late teens already yet his real age... That could remain a mystery to her. 

No, Shuu was definitely a man. His younger brothers looked more her age but he was already an obvious adult. He was bigger than her, stronger than her, and he... He could do _anything_ he wanted with her if she ever let her guard down. He wouldn't fumble around clumsily to cup a feel like the boys the girls at her old school had whispered about. 

Just French kissing and dry humping was seen as going all the way at that school and was enough to get labeled a slut. She barely knew anything about Shuu but she doubted he'd content himself with just that. Not after he had casually ordered her to get on his lap and had accused her of trying to 'ravish' him with that lazy knowing grin of his. 

_Stop thinking about that perverted ass vampire! I won't let him do anything more than what he did last night!,_ Even reassuring herself didn't help because Hannah knew that she was pretty much Shuu's property and he was all too aware of it and had tested her. 

Frustrated by how her thoughts kept going back to that asshole, Hannah turned on her side on the too large bed in the new room assigned to her. The room was large, far larger than the tiny shared room Yui and her had back at the boarding school with their narrow twin beds but even the vastness of this room made her uneasy. 

Because she was alone. After years of having Yui being a constant presence almost all year round except for on summer vacations, Hannah was sleeping in a room _alone_ and she didn't like it one bit. 

_Especially not after the way I had found Yui last night..._

Though it had taken Hannah awhile to find her, Yui had been placed in a room only a hall away from her and still the distance felt as if miles were between them. Not just because of the vampires, but because Yui was _lying_ to her. 

Twelve years of knowing someone made you know a lot about them as a person and Hannah could always tell when Yui was hiding something because that's exactly how long they've been friends. The other girl would avoid her eyes by looking to the side, she'd change the subject and would sometimes bite her lower lip. 

Yui always did these small things subconsciously. Just how she'd wring her own fingers when nervous and would flush a bright red with angry eyes when offended. The other girl was always an open book which wasn't always a bad thing... But it definitely wasn't a good thing in the place they both were in. The vampires could exploit Yui's open innocence because she wasn't as guarded and broken as Hannah was...

As soon as Hannah had knocked on the door of Yui's new room, she had been attacked by a hug and worried questions from her. Yui tended to blabber her questions when in a concerned fit and this time it had been no different. 

Yet Hannah wasn't stupid. Yui had already changed the subject the moment she saw her before Hannah could even ask if Reiji had done anything to her. Changed the subject to Hannah herself and her well-being, as if Hannah wouldn't notice the suspicious redness in Yui's eyes and how she was wearing a long sleeved sweater and cotton sweatpants instead of her usual girlish nightgowns she donned to sleep every night. 

_Why is she covering up for him...?,_ Hannah couldn't help feeling betrayed. Yes, she felt like she was getting stabbed in the back by Yui's refusal to tell her what Reiji could have done to her when Hannah wasn't around to protect her. 

When she had finally gotten Yui to calm down with her questioning, Reiji, _the prick_ , just had to stop her before she could finally ask Yui if she was truly alright. It was as if the stiff faced vampire had been just waiting to interrupt things between them by standing in the doorway of Yui's new room like some kind of well trained yet vicious guard dog that looked at her disdainfully.

He had, in his annoyingly snobbish polite way, _kicked_ her out of Yui's room by telling her where her own new room was located. 

That bloodsucking asshole had to have the last laugh. _Of course he did._ The new room Reiji had placed Hannah in was none other than the room his sleepy ass brother had almost killed her in days prior. 

By the time she had arrived to her new room she had been furious. She was only around four doors down from the room she had seen Shuu disappearing into after they had returned to the mansion. That was how _close_ she was to him now. She could have been put on the other side of town and she'd still think Shuu was invading her personal space. 

Hannah admitted that she had wanted to mess with Shuu by being as noisy as possible after that. As childishly petty and dumb as it was, she didn't want him to sleep easily like he was some innocent little angel after wasting her time at the school.

It was partly his own damned fault she was in this mess. She might have been alone at the wrong time and place, but he had been the one to attack her like some damned starved animal. If it hadn't been for that Reiji wouldn't have done his intimidation bullshit. Having Shuu attacking her gave Reiji some damned leverage over Hannah because the other vampires were violent possessive freaks, or so Reiji had informed her in lesser crude words than her. 

_Unless that was bullshit too...,_ Clenching her jaw, Hannah opened her eyes inside the pitch black room. She knew it was still daytime outside. She could tell by the warmth that emanated from the thick dark burgundy colored curtains shutting out the light close to her 'new' bed.

Feeling cold for what felt like the millionth time since being held captive by those damned Sakamakis, Hannah pulled at the multiple comforters she had requested. She had originally asked for additional blankets in hopes to stall Reiji from getting her out of Yui's room but the vampire had still sent her on her way by telling her that the blankets would be taken to her room later. 

And they had indeed come later along with one of those dull-eyed servants of the mansion.

 _At least they came in handy...,_ Forcing herself to see the bright side of things didn't help. Hannah didn't know how Yui managed to do it but being a natural pessimist made Hannah feel like everything around her was unfixable hopeless mess. 

_No differently than Hannah herself._

Covering herself up her shoulders, she made herself comfortable on the mattress underneath her and wondered if Yui was awake and if Reiji was far away enough for her to finally fire away her own list of questions. 

Something moved slightly beside her and Hannah immediately stiffened under the warmth of comforters. Her previous thoughts disappeared with the knowledge that she had uninvited company in her bed.

The room's air felt heavy and it was getting difficult to breathe because she wasn't as _alone_ as she had first thought. She was even too afraid to move even though the person lying quietly beside her hadn't moved further. The other body accompanying her in the bed even had a comfortable distance from her in their sleep. 

Trying to calm her rapidly speeding heart by holding her breath until releasing it slowly, Hannah told herself that it could be Yui. It wouldn't be the first time Yui had crawled into her bed after being frightened by something. Back at the boarding school, she would oftentimes wake up to find Yui cuddled up next to her in her tiny twin bed. 

_I need to see who the fuck this is...,_ Still suspicious, Hannah reached out of the warmth from the blankets and clumsily searched for the button of the bedside lamp close to her. Dim yellowed lighting finally gave the once darkened room some shape to it instead of it's unfathomable inky blackness. 

Sitting up, she shuddered slightly at just how freezing it was inside the room now that the blankets pooled on her lap. Even wearing her warm sleeping clothes couldn't ward away the uncomfortable persistent chill that seemed to permeate everything. 

_Or it's all just in my head. I'm shivering all the time since getting here._

Looking at the form beside her, Hannah sagged in relief. The body next to her was curled no differently than Yui did when she was heavily asleep. Yui was in a fetal position under some of the blankets and Hannah could see some of her messy darkened blond curls barely peeking above the warm cocoon of comforters. The slightly smaller girl even appeared far larger thanks to some of the sheets covering her body. 

_She scared the living shit out of me!,_ Roughly rubbing at the sleep on her face with both hands, Hannah inwardly scoffed at her paranoia. She wanted to scream with her frustration but couldn't dare to with vampires sleeping during the daylight hours in different rooms throughout the mansion. Her 'fit' the night before in her new room had already been pushing boundaries as it was. 

_I can never catch a break. It's a miracle I don't have fucking heart failure because of this._.., Running her fingers through her tangled black hair, Hannah figured she should just take a shower and let Yui continue sleeping. She was already embarrassing herself with her paranoid thinking even though she couldn't exactly blame herself for having her mind in overdrive. 

She would interrogate the other girl once she was awake. Yui couldn't keep quiet forever on what happened while she was gone. Hannah was ten times more stubborn than Yui could ever be and sooner or later the other girl would cave in and come clean. 

But getting visibly pissed off at the secrets wouldn't make Yui tell her. Her friend would only become more resolute in her silence if Hannah showed her temper. 

Hannah stretched her arms over her head and sighed lowly when the bones of her spine softly popped. The bed was comfortable but even in her sleep she hadn't been able to rest as well as she should have. At this rate she would be falling asleep in every corner like the damned vampire brother she had been stuck with. 

Glancing at the sleeping form beside her, Hannah slightly scowled. Yui only had one of the thick comforters covering her. With the uncomfortably low temperature of the room, she was surprised her friend wasn't trembling like a leaf under the sheets. 

Picking up some of the comforters Yui had probably pushed off in her sleep, Hannah covered up her friend. She had been right about Yui being cold. As she had gently dragged the warm layers over her, Hannah had felt the coldness from the room rising off her without even needing to physically touch her. 

Yui began to move under the sea of blankets as if she were starting to awaken from Hannah's actions. 

_Damn it, I was trying to be quiet!,_ Hannah wanted to kick herself for waking her friend up. She knew Yui hadn't been sleeping well herself and there she was in her awkward clumsiness, snapping the other girl out of her needed rest. 

Leaning closer towards her, Hannah tried to rub some warmth over what she assumed was one of Yui's arms under the blankets. Her movements were stiff but she was as gentle as she could be. She cringed at feeling that even the top layer of the covers was ice cold under her hand. 

"Go back to sleep. You must have had a long night...," Hannah's soft whisper made Yui go still before she relaxed under her attempts at a soothing touch. 

Not being the most affectionate or comforting person around wouldn't stop Hannah from trying once in awhile. Even if it came out forced. Especially if she still felt _guilty_ for not being there for Yui...

 _... And I yelled at her at the rooftop. I haven't forgotten that part.,_ Grimacing at the memory, Hannah pulled away from Yui that was once again comfortably asleep. Or at least as comfortable as any girl could be in a mansion full of 'teenaged' vampires that looked at them like they were dangling bloodied pieces of meat. 

Regretting picturing the image of her and Yui hanging from meat hooks, Hannah set about doing as she had planned. Leaving the bed, she moved as quietly as possible in the shadowy room, picking out some clothes for after her shower and her toiletries bag with the intention of going to the small bathroom that came along with her new room. In the previous room her and Yui had to step outside to bathe but luckily enough for Hannah, the only highlight of her new room was that she had her own bathroom. 

It wasn't as big or as antique as the one her and Yui had been sharing for the past couple of days but it was still better than being vulnerable outside of her room with those vampires being able to walk in any given minute. 

_Speaking of vampires...,_ Hannah locked the bedroom door on her way to the bathroom just to make sure. She was almost certain she had locked the door the night before but since Yui was there, she might have been wrong. 

_I must have forgotten to do it..._

Shaking her head and pushing that thought to mull over for later, Hannah entered the bathroom, and left the door ajar behind her. Yui was alone in the room under the soft glow of the bedside lamp she had left on for her and Hannah sensed that the vampires wouldn't start to awaken until at least around dusk. Reiji was the only vampire she'd seen up earlier than the rest while the other times the vampires were awake during daylight hours until ten or eleven at most. 

_Then there's that Shuu guy... It was around four or five when he had attacked me... That was a couple of hours before they're all up too_.

She didn't want to think about it. Being put in the very same room it had happened only made her remember everything with unwanted stark detail again. Her desperation and the vampire body spooning her stiff body while he murmured soft commands to get her to stop her struggles. How his coldness became warm with the more blood he took from her and the surprising gentleness in which he touched her despite his violence before falling asleep with their bodies pressed so intimately together. 

Hannah wasn't used to having people that close to her and yet Shuu had shattered that more than once. The only person she was comfortable with displaying her meager and awkward signs of affection with was Yui but Shuu had taken _physical contact_ from her with his strange form of command that didn't feel as invasive as it should have. 

Despite having his fangs digging painfully into her neck, having him that close to her felt almost natural and she resented him for experiencing that with her. 

He shouldn't have touched her and cuddled up to her like it was the most natural thing in the world. They were strangers. He was a captor and she was just _food_. 

Hannah was starting to hate him for more than him just attacking her and wasting her time with his teasing. She was hating him because she felt like he took something from her by force that wasn't just her blood _and_ her time. 

_I'm acting like he did more than just...,_ Her thoughts were frustrating her again. She didn't even know why her thoughts kept going back to him. Maybe having him so close in the same hall made him invade her mind. Or perhaps it was the damned room she was given that made her recall the events of that incident and even his damned _touching_. 

She didn't even need to see him to feel him because she still sensed him all around that part of the mansion.

That careless sense of calm that personified him. 

It was something she couldn't quite explain and didn't want to ever know about because as far as she knew, her best course of action would be to avoid Shuu altogether. 

Her thoughts of him could only be a product of being in a place where he spent most time in and him getting too physically close to her twice.

That was the only explanation that seemed plausible to her as Hannah undressed and got into the shower with it's pristine glass doors. Wiping her mind of all thoughts about him she tried to content herself with the thought that soon enough she would turn the water on until it was scalding enough to redden her pale skin. Extreme heat wasn't as bothersome as the extreme coldness outside and it was customary of her to heat her water until every glass surface was fogged with condensation and the room would have a faint cloud of steam. 

The problem would only arise once she was out of the heat and into the coldness outside again. She always hated that sudden change of temperature. 

After washing herself under the hot water for a couple of minutes, she then tried to untangle her now wet long tresses the best she could with her fingers. She wished she had chopped all of her hair off due to how annoying it was to take care of but she kept forgetting to do so. 

Hearing a loud wooden creak behind her as she continued to struggle with her hair, Hannah didn't turn around assuming that Yui was just checking in on her. From the shower she could get a clear view of the door but with her back turned she couldn't see her friend moving about in the foggy room. 

"I'll be out in a bit...!" she called out and it only took a couple of moments of tense silence after her words to make Hannah realize something was definitely wrong. 

There was someone _watching_ her bare back from the doorway. Normally Yui would answer her back and would walk away to give her some privacy but this presence didn't move or make any other noises other than just creaking the door of the bathroom wide open behind her.

Hannah was naked with only glass separating her from a _vampire_ observing her in her most vulnerable moments. With the coldness of the room outside she was certain that the steam fogging up the glass shower was vanishing until her entire back was completely exposed to him. 

Now her face turned red with a heat that had nothing to do with the water. She could almost sense his sickening interest in her as she stayed perfectly unmoving with her fingers still in her hair from pausing in untangling it. 

Eyes were looking over her back and her rear and even the backs of her legs. He was studying her carefully and she could feel the excruciating deliberate slowness he did it with. As if he were memorizing the sight of her naked body to his memory for a later time. 

Almost gritting her teeth, Hannah didn't measure her words at all. She said _exactly_ what was in her mind. 

"Get the _fuck_ out!" she wouldn't dare to turn around to yell at the asshole. He'd already gotten a good view of her back. She didn't need to show him her _front_ too. 

The sound of a chuckle came from the intruder that she now knew was Shuu. The bastard's presence remained in the open doorway despite her angered shout and she held her breath mentally preparing herself just in case he wanted to do something even more heinous. 

_It was_ him _in the bed with me that entire time!_ , Hannah was angry at herself. The guy barely had any presence when he slept. In fact, she suspected that he intentionally could mask himself whenever he was around because this wasn't the first time he had snuck up on her without her realizing it. With the other vampires, she could feel their threatening intent but with Shuu... He was almost completely _shielded_ from her. 

_Almost_..., He wasn't exactly hiding his true intentions from her now as he refused to leave the open doorway of the bathroom. The vampire was obviously set on standing there watching her shower as if she were putting on a private show for him. 

Swallowing apprehensively, she tried to sound softer and more polite, even though her voice came out sounding strained with her embarrassed anger. 

"Could you please return to the room until I'm finished...?"

A couple of seconds passed as Hannah continued to feel waves of humiliation from having the silent vampire still eyeing her. He might as well be _touching_ her with his staring. 

_Speak up or leave!,_ There he was again with that nerve-wracking quietness of his. He was being invasive again though he still didn't feel powerfully threatening. That strangely diminished threat was what made him unpredictable to her. 

"Why should I...?" the vampire had obviously made up his mind about staying right where he was. There was a hint of teasing in his tone that showed that he wasn't even _ashamed_ of what he was doing. 

"Because it's the _right_ thing to do when a girl is showering...?" she countered back, hoping futilely that he would back off even if she knew deep down that he wouldn't. 

He scoffed softly at her response proving her predictions right. 

"You're in my part of the house... So I can watch...," his calm logic was as twisted as his actions of watching her in her private moments. It was blatantly nonchalant. The vampire clearly saw himself as having a _right_ to be there. 

_Stay calm. He's just doing it to piss you off...,_ Breathing deeply through her nose, Hannah mentally counted to tame the violent anger rising up inside of her. If he had been a human she would have rushed out of the shower naked and would have punched the absolute shit out of his smug face but this guy was no human. He'd probably be more than prepared to come back at her if she attempted that. 

"You're a disgusting pervert," she whispered darkly, uncaring if he heard or took offense to her bluntly honest comment. 

"And you're a tease...," the insult towards her was clear in his quiet voice and Hannah felt shock upon noticing how he had turned everything back to her again like the night before. 

_What the fuck is he trying to say about me...?_

Furious about his insinuation she shut the hot water off and finally turned around. She didn't give a fuck if he saw her full frontal view now. Hannah was going to get out of that glass shower, get dressed and would get the hell away from him and his messed up accusations towards her. 

He was standing just where she had suspected he was. Leaning against the doorframe of the bathroom doorway, he was quietly staring at her as if he belonged there. His features were bland with his usual sleepy disinterest but his gaze was direct and more awake than she gave him credit for. 

Seeing him through the water streaked glass made her freeze momentarily before she furiously pulled the towel draped over the top of the shower's glass door and quickly wrapped it around herself. It was already pointless to hide herself from his eyes because he'd gotten too much of a good look at her. She was sure the damned lecherous bloodsucker had seen the curve of her breasts and even what shade of dark pink her nipples were through the watery glass. 

_I fucking hate your guts!,_ her angry eyes told him how she felt about him when slamming the sliding glass door open. She opened the door so hard that she even heard it crack at the force as he just smirked at the sound like the thought of getting her that visibly furious amused him.

"You're not leaving, are you?" her question was asked sharply and his smirk widened while hiding the points of his fangs. It still unnerved her how he could smile so emotionlessly. Him and Reiji shared that in common and it was infuriating just how guarded such a smile could be. 

"I don't see why I should," he had figured out just how to push her. 

_I wish he would step away from the doorway...,_ With Shuu standing there she wouldn't be able to leave unless she squeezed past him and that was the last thing she wanted to do. Thinking of _pressing_ her nearly naked body against him to do that was enough to make her stomach twist in revulsion.

Glaring at him once more, she walked towards the sink's counter to start dressing while holding on clumsily to her now sodden white towel. Her hair was soaked due to her not bothering to wring the excess water out before leaving the shower and it hung wetly over her shoulders and back. The water dripping from her hair was being absorbed by her towel until it was a flimsy cover from his gaze and she could still feel him watching her movements unabashedly. 

_He's really going to just stand there.._., Trying to hide her emotions once again despite the embarrassed heat over her face and neck, Hannah awkwardly pulled a pair of purple cotton panties under her towel. Her movements were quick but her wet skin made it difficult to pull the cloth up and she just knew that the bastard got a good look at her between her legs during the brief seconds she struggled. 

She heard him laugh again and she stiffened when reaching for her bra next. 

"You could have just taken the towel off. I've already seen all of you...," widening her eyes, she looked at Shuu sharply. 

"If you've seen all of me then why aren't you _leaving_?" she fired back rudely. There was no point in being polite with him anymore seeing how he didn't give a shit about personal space by stubbornly staying to watch her. 

He didn't answer back. Not like Shuu wanted to or needed to or at least that was the unspoken answer he was giving Hannah with his silence. 

_Of course he doesn't need to explain himself!,_ she thought sarcastically to herself as she tried to put on her bra without him seeing more of her. 

"Take it off..." his voice was growing impatient with her determination to keep the towel. 

"After you leave! Just _go away_ and I'll take it off!" she gritted out through her teeth. Not looking at him because the sight of his face just pissed her off, she started cursing under her breath while trying to slide a bra strap over one of her arms as one of her hands determinedly held the towel to her chest. 

"Stubborn woman...," for the first time she finally heard Shuu sounding frustrated with her. His words were muttered lowly and were almost intimidating to her without him having to shout them in her face. 

Tensing briefly she tried to ignore that now he did feel very threatening unlike before. Her movements to put her bra on turned more violent in her own anger and increasing fear of what he could do to her now that he wasn't controlling his annoyance with her attitude. 

_Please just leave...,_ her face ached painfully with how red it was when the towel fell down to her feet with her messy attempts to put her bra on over it. She had woken up with bad luck entirely on her side.

Holding her breath now that she was alone with him and only wearing her panties, Hannah stilled. Her skin positively burned with the exposure and she could feel goosebumps rising all over her with the cold of the air combining with the wetness of her shower. 

Not hearing anything from him, she sharply looked at the doorway he was standing in and was stunned into silence. Even the redness of her face receded at what awaited for her there. 

Shuu was gone.

He might have been gone since before the towel fell from her body. Confused with his actions, she could even faintly hear the door of her room opening and closing softly as he left. 

Some of the barely contained anger he had felt towards her still thickened the air but he had still walked away. As if losing interest with his game or _forcing_ himself to leave before he...

_This damned guy... Just what kind of game was he playing with me this time...?_

Hannah was at a loss. She had fully expected him to just attack her again after he had taken on that grim tone. Him walking away only made her feel more uncertain when it came to predicting exactly what the vampire could do to her when alone.

Once more he had done something annoyingly _unexpected_ and her inability to truly read into his intentions gnawed at her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again I'm meh on this chapter but I want Hannah to not be able to even guess what Shuu's sneaky ass is up to. 
> 
> He had already hinted about wanting to get on her bed cos of her clean sheets even tho he held off on masturbating (not because he didn't want pleasure but because he didn't want to clean up after himself afterwards. That doesn't mean he's altogether adverse to just having sex tho. Just cumming on himself seems to be an issue. Jfc this boy is lazy asf. 😩)
> 
> And tbh... The guy is so horny that he wasn't gonna pass up the chance to get a good look at a girl naked. If Hannah had pushed his temper even more he could have very well done something but he's already stated that he isn't into having a girl flipping out on him when he wants sex. He doesn't want to put in that much work tho he's already decided that he will have sex with Hannah. Just when the time is right for it... Or when he just can't take it anymore. 
> 
> Please leave a kudos and/or review if you liked!


	14. Controlled Instincts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing much happens in this chapter other than Reiji hitting Yui again, almost wanting to hit Hannah and Shuu being horny (he thought of some vague ravishment and choking. Nothing too descriptive or serious... I think)

Yui hid her wince as the crop struck the back of her hand. This was the third time Reiji had struck her since she had gone into his study after dinner as he had instructed her to the night before.

Pulling her hand back after the blow she inspected the back of her hand expecting a bloodied red welt but there was only a faint pinkness to her skin. Reiji was being gentle with his striking perhaps trying to avoid giving her any visible wounds like the one on her arm that was hidden under the sleeve of the faded pink sweater she rarely wore. 

Sitting stiffly in front of his desk with her already finished homework sprawled on top of the polished dark surface, she waited for him to find yet another fault in her assignments. She'd had the homework given to her at school the other night and even though she had already finished it during break with Hannah in the school's library, Reiji still somehow managed to find mistakes. 

He picked one of her finished papers with gloved fingers and she already dreaded and almost _pictured_ him finding something amiss again. She had done her work as she had usually done it. In fact she _knew_ she had gotten most of her answers on the worksheets correct yet there was always _something_ Reiji found a flaw in. It was like he had the uncanny ability to single out mistakes that she had never even thought of. 

Things like her not thoroughly explaining the process of how she'd gotten the answer to a mathematical equation even if the teacher hadn't specified for that information. The vampire was unnaturally meticulous, even on the weekend. Even his clothes when out of school were neat except for a couple of undone buttons on his white shirt that showed the paleness of his neck. 

_I know I got those answers right. Is he looking for just an excuse to hit me...?_

Eyeing him warily as he leaned back in his seat while looking over her work quietly, Yui held her breath. She still had memories of how he had punished her the night before. His cold flat stare when looking at her pained expressions before staring at her bleeding skin had chilled her as if her blood had been replaced with ice water.

There had been no pity or humanity there. She had felt just like some _object_ for him to break. His lack of expression as he'd made her bleed was almost similar to the nuns at her old school but darker in a way. Perhaps the darkness she saw lurking behind his cool eyes was just a part of him being a vampire or it could be something far more sinister. 

She had been lucky that he had appeared to have come to his senses and had ordered her to leave after his punishment. Her arm had a lingering persistent stinging from his blows and she still mentally cringed recalling that her skin wasn't only reddened but scabbed. He had repeatedly struck her in the same place until she had a large flat wound that felt slightly rough with it's healing when she tentatively ran her finger tips over it. 

"Yui-san, your professor may not have informed you because you're a new student, but she does expect you to staple the sheet you did your mathematical formulas in to your work...," pulling her worksheet away from him, he stared at her dully as if waiting for an answer.

"I didn't know..."

She was being punished because her teacher didn't have the presence of mind to tell her rules for homework. Looking down at her hands on her lap Yui felt like sighing out loud but she knew she couldn't. Not with Reiji that observed her every movement in case she made yet another thing he deemed as a mistake. 

Seeing the crop in one of his hands, she fully expected him to order her to offer her hand for him to strike again but he surprised her by settling the dreaded riding crop back on his desk. 

"It cannot be helped... _Human_ teachers are not exactly the best teachers," his words held a tinge of unconcealed disdain and Yui got the impression that he didn't think all too highly of their professors...

 _Or humans for that matter._ , she quietly added to herself. 

After careful thinking the night before Yui had come to a realization that both frightened and even disgusted her with her own lack of strength. The only way she could stay alive and relatively unscathed in the Sakamaki mansion... Would be to follow Reiji's rules without giving him much to be angered for. 

_But it's going to be difficult...,_ she noted seeing that he had picked up yet another one of her worksheets to scrutinize over. His quietness combined with his focus of her homework without sparing her a glance was unsettling. She was reminded of how quiet the mansion truly was and how alone she felt inside the study with only Reiji as company. 

With as undecipherable as his placid features were, Reiji was even more intimidating now than the rare moments she saw flashes of irritation in his eyes. At least those brief seconds of concealed anger in his eyes told her what he was feeling unlike his unnatural calmness. Yui didn't know what to do other than sit there and wait for him to speak again when he was like this. 

He was obviously controlling her with his bouts of silence. She had noticed that and that only made her nervousness rise the few times he had spoken since they'd both gone into the study after dinner.

"You forgot to put punctuation marks in some sentences," confused over what he said, Yui frowned at the paper still in his hands trying to figure out for what class it was. 

_That's for my science class. He's grading it like it's something for literature...,_ unbeknownst to Yui she slightly glared at Reiji. Now she was certain he was _nitpicking_ at her homework. 

"Your hand, Yui-san," he didn't even look at her when telling her to extend her hand over his desk so he could strike it once more.

She hesitated. Even if she understood that she must not anger him, she also knew that if she gave in too much he could potentially hurt her more without any restraints. 

Seeing that her hand wasn't in front of him as he had expected it to be, Reiji sharply looked at her in reprimand and Yui already regretted her moment's hesitation. 

Gulping while holding back her own anger about what was being done to her and what _could_ be done to her in the future, she lifted her hand over the desk. He was going to strike her for the fourth time. His blows this night were nothing compared to the night before but the skin on the back of her hand had already begun to smart with the quick stings of pain he gave her. 

Reiji could make the crop more painful than the nuns. His strikes were always quick and precise. He'd always hit her in the same spot with the same level of strength. The control he exerted over something like this spoke of years of experience hurting others with that crop. 

The wind hissed as the crop stung the back of her hand. Yui felt her hand tremble with the sharp burn of it. 

A polite soft knock at the study's closed door had Yui quickly pulling her hand to her side. She didn't even know why she hid her hand. Maybe she didn't want anyone to see her obediently accepting Reiji hitting her like she was some misbehaving child. Her cheeks flushed with the embarrassment at the thought of just being seen _allowing_ him to do that. 

Sighing at the interruption, Reiji placed his crop back on the desk. 

"You may come in, Ito-san," surprise had Yui widening her eyes when Reiji spoke those words. He knew who was behind the door without even looking at them and the fact that it was her friend that had approached the study herself made Yui curious as well as nervous. 

Glancing at the discarded crop on Reiji's desk, Yui inwardly prayed that Hannah wouldn't see it. She knew of the other girl's temper and if she saw that Yui was getting hurt by Reiji...

The door opened as she stiffened waiting for Hannah to show her anger. 

Hannah entered the room and closed the door behind her. As always she was just as composed as the vampire sitting in front of Yui yet she at least knew what signs to look for when it came to Hannah. 

Even during dinner she had noted Hannah's tension. The other girl was clearly holding something back. When Hannah turned to look at her and then Reiji after closing the door, it was evident that she was going to say what it was that had gotten her that tense. 

Not offering her a seat, Reiji asked Hannah coolly, "Did you need something?" 

"I want a new room," Hannah was directly blunt. Even with the flatness in her voice, Yui could tell the other girl was clearly angry. 

"And may I ask what is wrong with your current room...?"

"Your _brother_ is the problem," some emotion finally appeared in Hannah's pale grey eyes as Yui looked at her questioningly. She hadn't gotten Hannah to tell her what had happened to her when she had been alone with Shuu at the school. Reiji hadn't allowed her to when he had opened the door to Yui's new room unannounced. 

_Did Shuu-san do something bad to her again...?_

"You are his bride-"

" _Bullshit_ ," the lowly hissed curse left Hannah's lips and Yui wanted to speak up to quickly calm her friend. Glancing at Reiji to see his reaction she knew that he was getting angered by how Hannah was speaking to him. He was stiff on his seat across from her, his stare glacial and focused on Hannah who still stood in front of the closed door. 

"Hannah...?"

"You knew exactly what you were getting me into by making me stay as his so-called bride," Hannah ignored Yui softly calling her name in warning regarding the quietly fuming vampire. 

"I already told you on the night you allowed him to feed from you that you had made your choice," despite Hannah's anger, Reiji's voice was measured and far too calm. He was barely controlling himself from going to Hannah and punishing her for her disrespect. That much was evident to Yui judging by the tension on his shoulders and how emotionless those guarded mangenta colored eyes of his were. 

"You know I didn't allow him to do anything," the bitterness in Hannah's words showed that she was close to losing control herself. 

"He got into my bed and _watched_ me shower. Is that a common thing in your _distinguished_ family...?" the silence that followed Hannah's spiteful question was tangible. Yui didn't even look at Reiji for fear of the expression he must have had with Hannah's insults. 

"Perhaps I made a mistake in having you as his bride. It has become glaringly obvious that Shuu hasn't started to discipline you as of yet," Reiji's tone in uttering those words didn't tell Yui what he was feeling and that only made the situation more tense and discomforting for her. Hannah didn't show fear but Yui felt it for both of them. 

"Would you _please_ give me a new room?" Hannah pressed again. 

Reiji didn't answer Hannah's question and at that Yui looked at him and blanched upon seeing him glaring back at the other girl. He hadn't moved from his seat or reached out for the crop not far from him but the look in his eyes was enough to make Yui's insides feel as if they were slowly shriveling. 

"Reiji-san please excuse her. She hasn't been sleeping well-" the glare he had been directing at her friend was now directed at her. The sheer controlled hints of anger he had in that stare made her unable to speak further. 

"This doesn't involve Yui...," Hannah's suddenly subdued tone didn't do anything to interrupt the uncomfortable eye contact between her and Reiji. 

"Reiji-san...?" her friend tried to get his attention away from Yui again by speaking his name. 

"Ito-san, did you perhaps _forget_ what I told you the first night you arrived?" Yui blinked in confusion as Reiji finally looked away from her. With his attention on Hannah again she could breathe easier even though there was still an invisible charge in the air that warned that things weren't as calm as they appeared. 

If her friend wasn't careful there would be violence. Glancing at the desk, Yui saw that Reiji's hand had discreetly grabbed on to the crop again when looking at Hannah. He was squeezing it in his hand and Yui suspected that if it hadn't been for his gloves, his knuckles would have been more visibly pronounced with how tightly he gripped it. 

"I... I haven't forgotten...," hearing how carefully Hannah was speaking made Yui realize that there was more going on in the conversation between her and Reiji. 

_Hannah sounds scared..._

"Oh, but I believe you _have_ , Ito-san. It is so very disappointing that you would behave this selfishly," the smirk on Reiji's face was cruel in it's mockery. 

"Whatever you plan to do, do it to me instead since I was the one that stepped out of line..."

Shocked by her friend's change, Yui was puzzled at seeing that Hannah was bowing her head respectfully at Reiji in a sign of apology. She'd never seen the other girl doing that. For Hannah to do such a thing she would have had to swallow her own pride and perhaps felt the heavy weight of insult upon herself. Especially since her dislike towards Reiji was too obvious for anyone to see. 

_She has never done this even for the nuns..._

"What's going on...?"

Neither of them answered Yui's question. 

"I'll hold you to that, Ito-san," as if Yui weren't there at all, Reiji's voice had the absence of the previous anger that had made the study feel so chilled and hard to breathe in. His anger towards the other girl had been so powerful that Yui had felt the definite change but with Hannah's last words, the aggression slowly dissipated from the room as if it had all been imagined. 

"I will not change your room. Regretably it is no longer my place to make such a decision," Hannah didn't stop bowing her head nor look up at Reiji as he refused her request. He even sounded apologetic although Yui sensed that it was all a part of his facade of courteousness. 

"It is now up to Shuu if your room is changed because you are under his care. If he decides to let you choose a different chamber within his hall, then you may move at any time you wish, Ito-san."

_That doesn't change anything! If Shuu-san is going into her room now he'll still-_

"I understand, Reiji-san," there was nothing giving away any emotion in Hannah's murmured response. She had guarded herself well and signs of her previous anger weren't there at all. Even Yui could have been fooled if she hadn't known the girl. 

"And Yui-san...," Yui felt apprehensive when hearing Reiji using the same polite tone that he had used with Hannah when calling her name. Meeting his eyes, she mentally braced herself. 

"I will allow your moments of speaking out of turn just this once. Please be certain to _refrain_ from being that impertinent in the future," her face drained of color. She had been so shocked by Hannah's presence in the room that she had broken yet another rule. The directness in Reiji's stare was an undeniable warning that he hadn't missed her trying to interrupt their conversation. 

_Speak only when spoken to..._

"You may collect your belongings to make your corrections on your work at your leisure. I expect to see _neater_ penmanship on these worksheets before returning to school after the weekend."

 _He's actually letting me go...?,_ It took a lot in Yui to not show too much relief on her face or to rush gathering her things to leave with Hannah who was still in the room. Perhaps the foul mood Hannah had put Reiji in had deterred him or had made him lose interest in her for the rest of the night. 

Yui wasn't going to question it. Even with his calmness and less tension in the room, Yui still felt that Reiji was dangerous and barely containing himself. This sensation of unease had unnerved her the night before when he had punished her. 

Careful control that could snap at the slightest provocation. This was one of the reasons she had resigned herself about her new circumstances. She didn't know Reiji enough to come up with anything else other than just accepting things quietly until both her and her friend could be free. 

Yui had swore to herself that her and Hannah weren't going die in that place. There was still uncertainty about their future but Yui refused to just die in a mansion and be easily forgotten. Hannah was orphaned while Yui had a father that had put them both there. If they died no one would know and that was the reality that made Yui think feigning obedience was her only choice left.

It made her feel weak and useless. She hadn't ever seen herself as particularly strong mentally or physically but the helplessness she felt among the brothers was like an infected wound to her that only grew. 

She tried to not be too noisy in putting away her homework in her book bag. Reiji would probably get annoyed again and as impotent as it made Yui feel, she wasn't going to push that vampire any further. Not only was she doing this for herself but for Hannah. 

"Goodnight, Reiji-san...," she murmured softly and bowed politely as she had seen Hannah do once her things were neatly put away. Apparently such signs of respect calmed Reiji's growing ire. 

"Goodnight," his voice at least seemed polite but she didn't let that trick her with false security. 

Reiji had sounded polite when he had beat her until she bled. That tone was no warning of any sort to her now. 

He didn't stop them as they left his study. Yui had briefly thought he would judging by the heaviness of his gaze on her back as they quietly stepped out into hall. 

Once they were outside, she heard Hannah release her breath. The other girl must have held her breath most of the time in the study with the tension coming from Reiji himself. 

"Let's go...," Hannah kept her voice low and confused by what she wanted and noting that she wanted to be followed without question, Yui walked after her. 

The other girl was quietly leading her to the back of the house. 

"Where are we-?"

"We'll talk once we get there...," with her voice still low, Hannah walked further down the hall that Yui suspected lead to the large room that served as an entryway to the gardens. 

_Did Reiji-san remove the chains from the doors and that's what she wants to show me...?_

The other girl finally stopped at the chained glass doors and seemed to deflate as if being out of the hall Reiji's study was located in had given her some relief. 

Facing her, Yui should have known what the knowing look in Hannah's eyes meant.

"Show me your right arm," her voice was a little higher than before but still barely a whisper. 

"What?!"

"Yui, I saw that _thing_ in his hand and you've been fiddling with the sleeve of your right arm since I walked in there," even in the dim lighting shining down on them, Yui saw Hannah's eyes sharp on her face. 

Pressing her lips together, Yui squeezed the strap of her backpack over one of her shoulders, "I wasn't fiddling with it-"

"Yes you were," Hannah cut her off. 

Yui looked down at the floor and felt almost embarrassed at being that obvious. She wasn't only easy to read to the vampires that barely knew her but to her friend. 

"If you don't show me, I'll lift your sleeve up myself and _will_ get pissed off because I had to find out for myself," the stubbornness of the other girl had Yui wanting to argue with her even though she knew she wouldn't win. Once Hannah was determined there was nothing to dissuade her. 

She didn't want to show her. Hannah was already angry about having to put up with Shuu and seeing the ugly wound on Yui's arm would probably only worsen things for her. 

Despite her misgivings, Yui slowly lifted up the sleeve covering her right arm. She closed her eyes as Hannah's warm hand gently grabbed her wrist to turn her arm to get a look at it under the meager lighting of the place they were standing in. Yui was certain that the angry dark red wound looked like a darkened blotch even in the shadowy entryway to the gardens. 

"Even those bitches at our old school didn't make you bleed like this," hearing Hannah's quiet observation Yui opened her eyes and was surprised at seeing her friend look almost defeated while gazing down at her arm. 

The other girl understood as much as Yui did. 

"We have to be careful," Yui whispered back, hating that this was the only way. This was just the beginning. Reiji hadn't wasted time in showing her that he would beat her if necessary to make her obedient while Shuu...

His growing interest in her friend was unnerving to say the least. If he was invading Hannah's space like that it was obvious that he could only worsen as time passed. Most of the time she'd seen him he didn't spare her friend a glance as if she were invisible but apparently once they were alone... 

When Hannah closed her eyes and nodded, Yui relaxed. With her bad temper, Hannah was going to be more cautious too. She'd already had a brush in with death since getting there herself and had tested Reiji's patience. 

"I hate this shit..."

"I know," her softly uttered agreement didn't help Yui feel better for both of them. 

Something loudly crashed from a room close by and Hannah's hand still around Yui's wrist tightened as she flinched at the sudden noise. 

"God damn it, one of them is close by. I figured out that the colder the room is, the more likely one of them is around but this guy is closer than I thought," muttering those words angrily, Hannah pulled at Yui's wrist to take her further away from the sounds that came from a room not far from them. 

_Which one of them is it...?,_ Allowing herself to be lead to the set of stairs close to the gardens, the sounds of shattering glass made her wince. 

One of the vampires was in a rage. Even with quickly putting distance between them and the violent sounds the unseen vampire was making in one of the rooms on the first floor, Yui heard the aggressiveness of the destruction. Wood was splintering and glass was breaking. The noises were so thunderous that Yui was surprised that the other vampires weren't putting a stop to it. 

*****

 _Subaru_..., Shuu already knew that the one on the path of destruction in one of the nearby sitting rooms was none other than his youngest brother. This was another annoying routine in their house especially after Subaru had been out in the town. 

Which was something Subaru had been doing with more frequency since the two new brides had arrived. His younger sibling was only coming to the house to sleep and during the few hours in the night that he stayed in the mansion, he would let his temper get the better of him. 

If Shuu had cared he would have asked his younger brother what had gotten him in such a foul mood. But years of trying to tune everything around him out prevented him from rising from the couch he was laying on. He was far too comfortable in the small tea room he had found that was relatively free of dust. 

_One of Reiji's favorite places in the house.,_ Shuu almost smirked in the darkness of the clean little room. If that brother found him laying there comfortably with his shoes on the couch he would be livid with his threats. Threats that Shuu didn't doubt Reiji would follow through with if he knew just how to push him. 

Opening his eyes, he showed a hint of his fangs in annoyance upon hearing what now sounded like a chair being thrown against a wall. If Reiji didn't put an end to the destruction, Shuu would be forced to stop their younger brother himself which was the last thing he wanted. 

Glancing at the window not far from where he was laying, Shuu felt a familiar energy of aggression filling him. Although it was not yet full, the moon was on it's waxing stages. It was going from its darkness to a slowly growing crescent until finally being full in the next following days and even Shuu wasn't a stranger to it's influence. 

His instincts were becoming more acute and so were his urges. It was such a bothersome thing that came with being a vampire. Normally they'd all leave the mansion during the full moon's power over them. Six vampires hungering and even _lusting_ inside the same house created more conflict among all of them. They'd be irritated and competitive even more when there was virgin blood to be had inside the mansion. 

Things would escalate to violence more often than not. Shuu usually contented himself by going to the park near their school and would feed on any foolish human that happened to be available or at least close to the area he was resting in. But on most occasions, he wouldn't feed at all. He'd just lay in some darkened secluded spot, wanting to just be left alone as the undeniable hunger twisted his stomach to agonizing pain that he felt would drive him into madness. 

This self-imposed punishment was normal for him. He'd _starve_ himself on purpose... Until a human was too close to him. 

Things only worsened when they had brides. With sharing brides, the girls given to them wouldn't last long for him to be well-fed. His siblings would slowly drain the girls in days until they crawled to Shuu with their veins nearly depleted of blood. 

Frowning slightly, Shuu heard that Subaru had clearly found something more _fragile_ to break. Glass was scattering on the floor so loudly that Shuu felt as if he were in the very room with him himself. 

The anger and annoyance coursing through him as well as the knowledge of the approaching full moon was all that kept Shuu from moving from his comfortable napping spot now. He had almost already lost control hours earlier with his 'bride'. 

_I have that woman to feed from now._.., Shuu had left her in her room after her own temper had nearly pushed him to the brink. When he had gone to her bed, he had only been looking for sleep in a cleaner place. Only briefly he'd toyed with the idea of waking her to get a reaction out of her due to how her normally guarded appearance had irritated him at their school. 

But once he had felt the soft mattress under him and smelled the cleanliness of the sheets on her bed combined with that soothing water lily scent that seemed to now be uniquely hers, he had fallen asleep again. 

Sleep had actually come faster to him upon that bed. It was as if her calmed heartbeat had lulled him until he had relaxed under the ridiculous amount of blankets she'd had.

Thoughts of previous lust had waned once he'd become comfortable beside the woman without touching her. Taking full advantage of that, he had rested in relative peace for a few measly hours. 

The lulling quality of her heartbeat changing in rhythm had been what had made him come to later. The rest of what had happened had been amusing and _frustrating_ at most. The woman had been so heavily groggy after recently awakening that she had mistaken him for her friend. He had stiffened under the covers when she had even _dared_ to gently stroke him over them. 

There had been nothing particularly seductive in her touch but even he had enough keen senses to feel her human warmth filtering through the multiple layers of cloth. Her smell had almost taunted him with it's teasing. Her fragrance was much stronger up close and it mixed with something sweeter that he suspected was her own natural scent. 

If it hadn't been for his surprise at having her touching him, Shuu would have grabbed her and pulled her underneath him. He would have easily had his way with her while the rest of the mansion was quiet with his brothers slumbering in their own rooms. 

Yet she had pulled away and had gone to shower. He had been irritated by the idea of having to _get up_ from the bed to go after her. 

Seeing her naked had only him grow more frustrated once he had decided on following her. 

She was beautiful underneath all the warm layers of clothes she used. He had already known that after feeling her in his arms the night he'd fed but finally seeing the curves she had hidden had tempted him to get inside the shower with her. 

However her angry voice had picked away at him. It was like a knife had twisted in his skull that killed all thoughts of teasing her fairly quickly.

The only thing that had stopped him from grabbing the loud annoying woman by the throat and tearing the towel from her had been the reminder that he couldn't outright kill her. He had wanted to pull her to the ground and tangle his fingers in her wet hair to pin her down while choking her and there would have been no gentleness in his actions. Just the anger and slowly stoked frustration of losing control. 

He could have _killed_ her in that bathroom. 

The sound of yet another breaking vase had Shuu sighing loudly as his thoughts were broken through. It was perhaps a good thing that Subaru decided to have one of his rages on this night because Shuu's lingering violent thoughts of that woman were interrupted. 

Sitting up on the couch made his annoyance increase. His body had been been almost paralyzed with his tiredness on the soft couch. Moving to a sitting position after having just napped only made him more exhausted. 

_I'll have to shut him up..._ , running a hand through his hair, Shuu slowly blinked in the dark and tried to suppress a yawn. 

This was bothersome. The triplets didn't seem to care much about what Subaru did and whenever he went into one of his rages the only one he'd actually gave some semblance of listening to was Shuu himself. Reiji would only seem to antagonize their younger brother into causing more wreckage when he was in one of his explosive moods. 

Getting up from the couch, Shuu unhurriedly left the darkened tea room. He didn't want to have to deal with Subaru and his ensuing yelling but since his younger sibling wasn't stopping, he was given no other choice. 

The chaos was coming from one of the rooms close to the gardens. Some kind of small sitting room that only served the purpose to look at some dainty decorative flower beds and some of the forest surrounding the mansion. 

Seeing Reiji about to enter the small room himself, Shuu mentally groaned at having to deal with yet another _annoyance_ in this weekend night. 

"I'll handle him," Reiji looked at him plainly when he finally quietly spoke, carefully hiding that Shuu's presence had surprised him. 

"See that you do. It is bad enough _Ito-san_ is almost as destructive as he is...," pushing up at his glasses out of habit, Reiji made it clear that his remark regarding his 'bride' was an indirect jab at Shuu. 

"Did she cause you trouble...?" Shuu didn't care if she had and he smirked at the sight of Reiji stiffening after his question. 

More crashes came from inside the room. 

"They're _both_ your problem. Make yourself _useful_ for once in your life," with that cold remark, Reiji walked away, leaving Shuu in front of the closed door separating him from his angered younger brother. 

_I take that's a yes... That woman might have her advantages_., Opening the door to the room Subaru was fuming inside of, Shuu was more at ease with the idea of facing the furious vampire. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dang, wtf is wrong with Subaru lately? The man's getting more pissy each day... For reasons. 
> 
> Forget my last A/N since I've gotten the impression that a lot of ppl didn't understand what I meant with a primary or secondary pairing is within the same story. I'll just let the story play out on it's own since sometimes the stories do take a life of their own. 
> 
> Please leave a kudos and/or review if you liked! Things might take a turn in the next chapter tho... Cos I said so. Someone is growing very impatient and tired of just lazing around. If he doesn't do something soon, shit will only get worse. We can call this chapter a foreshadowing. 
> 
> (Tbh all of the boys get bad around this "time of the month", lol. The days leading up to it could be similar to PMS *wheeze*)
> 
> Might not update this Saturday but the next one cos I already had this chapter pre-written! Real life shit be annoying sometimes. 😩


	15. Announcement about my absence

Will delete this announcent thing later, but I wanted to inform right quick why I have been gone. To put it simply we've all gotten Covid in my house and I've been feeling like shit tho we're considered "mild cases". Only today did I finally feel like my old self again, tho I'm coughing up a bunch (feeling better tho since I'm just letting all the nasty out. I can't wait till I can write again but most of my days are spent in bed just tapping randomly at my phone and feeling nasty cos I'm even paranoid to wash my hair cos when I washed it I started wheezing for some reason. This disease sucks. Good thing is that we're outta danger and got support and awesome doctors. Pls appreciate those in the medical field. They're keeping us alive and do everything they can and also... Take this fucking disease seriously. This shit is freaking serious and for real. I was literally suffocating on and off for a month.

PS: y'all can find me @ pinnaclechoi on Twitter cos I spend more time in there than my Tumblr bitch-pinnacle. If you spot me do an @ me and recommend me some dang crack funny vids cos I'm bored as shit in this house and I can't barely sleep cos I have to be punctual with meds. 😩


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